This worrying step towards ‘gendercide’

IN MANY parts of the world, sex-selective abortion is so widespread that it is known as ‘gendercide’.

Prejudice against female babies has resulted in a mass cull of girls in the womb which will blight those societies for decades. Surely we do not wish to risk such a miserable outcome, or anything like it, here? Yet, in a country which rightly insists on the equal worth of women and men, a leading feminist is advocating a policy which may lead there.

Professor Wendy Savage is a distinguished doctor who sits on the council and the medical ethics committee of the British Medical Association. She thinks that Government guidance clearly outlawing sexselective abortions is mistaken.

And somehow she has convinced herself that sex-selective abortion is not gender discrimination. In her view, the unborn baby she coldly dismisses as a ‘foetus’ is not protected by sex discrimination laws.

She believes it is a ‘myth’ that sex-selective abortions are already happening in Britain – though there is powerful evidence that they are.

There may never be a national consensus on the subject of abortion itself. Its supporters and its opponents, equally passionate and idealistic, will not change each other’s minds. But Parliament has repeatedly sought a civilised compromise, especially on the stage of pregnancy after which abortion should not be allowed.

Now it seems those who favour a more relaxed law are preparing for a powerful offensive, sweeping away most of the remaining restrictions. By doing so, they show contempt for those who object to abortion at any stage but who have tolerated the 1967 law as part of their duty to democracy.

There are already too many people in our society who brush aside compromise and seek the total satisfaction of their demands. They should remember that their opponents, too, can if they choose take the same view, and that the boot may one day be on the other foot. We do not want gendercide here, and our abortion law is quite liberal enough already.