sex-selective abortion

On June 26, the New York Times ran an op-ed from Ross Douthat which highlighted the horror of there being 160 million girls missing in the world today, largely owing to sex-selective abortions.  However, rather than indicting this as a horrible outgrowth of deeply entrenched male-supremacy and patriarchy, Douthat places the blame for this on women’s right to abortion and the few hard-won advances that have been made in some spheres for some women.  As such, he ends up arguing for the very male supremacy and traditional values that lead to this kind of thing in the first place.

As if there were not already enough barriers to abortion access constructed in the name of “protecting women,” Arizona has become the first state to ban abortions performed on the basis of the race or sex of the fetus.