|
Christian Science Monitor Examines Rise in Number of Sex-Selective Abortions in India, Resulting Gender Imbalance
(Kaisernetwork) The Christian Science Monitor on Wednesday examined the rise in the number of sex-selective abortions in India and the resulting gender imbalance in the population. Although the government for "decades" has been aware of the practice of killing newborn girls, any progress in stemming that practice has been counterbalanced by an increase in the prevalence of sex-selective abortion, the Monitor reports. Now, many couples -- with the aid of medical technology, "weak" enforcement of laws banning abortion based on a fetus's gender and the cooperation of "unethical" physicians -- choose to terminate pregnancies if the fetus is female, worsening India's already "awkwardly skewed gender ratio," according to the Monitor.
Click here for the full story
An Impediment to Choice
(PRI) Communist China announced plans last month to criminalize sex-selective abortion, yet American and international feminist groups quick to denounce restrictions on the "right to choose" in any country did not complain. Their silence is an extension of the silence they observe on China's official one-child policy, which since 1979 has forced women who have more than one child (or two children in many rural areas) to undergo sterilization or forced abortion. Feminists' implicit acceptance, and in some cases endorsement, of China's decision fully accords with the fundamentally statist, authoritarian worldview of mainstream leftists. They favor government regulation of almost everything, including abortion when it suits purposes they favor such as population control. Their long-standing support for China's systematically coercive population control program is proof that reproductive freedom is not their chief concern.
Click here for the full story
Latest UN Report Confirms World Population Headed for Plummet
(LifeSiteNews.com) A newly released report from the United Nations affirms that world population levels which have been stagnating of late are headed for decline in the developed world with the developing world closely following the trend.
Women and men in developing countries are marrying later, having fewer children and having them later, following the pattern set earlier in the developed world. As a result, average fertility in developing countries has declined to under three children per woman. This is one of the major findings from World Fertility Report 2003, issued by the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
The report documents changes in reproductive behaviour, including marriage and contraceptive use, in 192 countries of the world since the early 1970s. The report also presents the latest information concerning governments' views and policies on fertility. Click here for the full story
Chinese Government Defends One-Child-Per-Family Policy Against U.S. Criticism
(Kaisernetwork) The Chinese government on Tuesday defended its one-child-per-family policy against U.S. criticism, saying the country's "strict birth controls" do not encourage abortions, the AP/Star Online reports.
Click here for the full story
China's Persecution of Women and
Children: More of the Same
(PRI) New House International Relations Committee hearings chaired by Rep. Chris Smith (R.-N.J.) and held December 14 told the same old sad story: the Chinese government continues to persecute women who exceed their allotted quota of children. The same basic story has some new twists, however. Even domestic Chinese population experts now quietly admit that China's population control program coerces women. And, in a new low for the Communist Chinese regime, a peaceful protester against China's one-child policy, Mao Hengfeng, has been imprisoned and is being tortured. Beijing expects its women to submit quietly to the abortions and sterilizations required of them. Click here for the full story
China's Human Rights Violations Detailed
(FNIF) A hearing on Capitol Hill this week revealed disturbing new information about China's forced abortion policy.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill heard startling testimony Tuesday about continuing human rights violations in China. Getting special attention was the country's family-planning policies, which include forced sterilization and abortion and the impact those policies have on Chinese women.
Many people already know about China's forced one child per family policy, but the emotional cost to China's women has not been publicized. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., said a State Department human rights report shows that 500 women commit suicide in China every day because of the coercive population control program.
"As a matter of fact," Smith said, "the report points out that 56 percent of the world's female suicides occur in the People's Republic of China."
Click here for the full story
Bush Signs Omnibus Spending Bill, Including Abortion-Related Provision, Increase in Abstinence Funding
(Kaisernetwork) President Bush on Wednesday signed into law a fiscal year 2005 $388 billion omnibus spending measure (HR 4818) that includes language that would allow the federal government to withhold funding from any state or local government that acts against health care providers because they do not provide abortion-related services, the AP/Washington Post reports (Fram, AP/Washington Post, 12/9).
The provision also prohibits federal, state or local agencies from requiring doctors, hospitals, health plans and other health care entities to provide to patients abortion services or referrals to a different provider. The provision extends to health care providers nationwide the same "conscience protection" as is currently given to medical students who do not want to undergo abortion training (Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, 11/22). Click here for the full story
Japan Turning into a "Society without Children"
12/7/2004 2:03 PM
(LifeSiteNews.com) TOKYO, A record number of Japanese women are unmarried and childless, leading the country perilously close to a childless society. The country has actually coined a new term to describe the phenomenon - 'shoshika,' which means "a society without children," according to a BBC report.
The population, if current trends continue, will be reduced by 20 percent by mid-century, with nearly 50 percent of those being elderly -- an "impossible" situation for maintaining the health and pension systems.
Women in the country are reticent to marry, blaming employer and social expectations, such as long working hours for men, coupled with the expectation that women stay at home after having children.
Click here for the full story
Overpopulation Myth Challenged
10/19/2004 3:16 PM
(FNIF) A new book argues the world is actually headed toward a population shortage.
Common wisdom has it that there are already too many people in the world and that mankind is headed toward overpopulation of cataclysmic proportions.
A new book, however, makes the case that such a view is as wrong as wrong can be.
Specifically, the book "Fewer" says this century will mark the start of a decline in population, and that the loss will eventually be in the billions.
"Never have birth and fertility rates fallen so far, so fast, so low, for so long, in so many places, so surprisingly," explained Ben Wattenberg, the book's author.
Using statistics compiled by the United Nations, Wattenberg concludes the imbalance between births and deaths predicts a shrinking world population. That can cause serious problems for governments, including labor shortages and the inability to sustain government programs that assumed a steadily increasing tax-base. Click here for the full story
Longtime Opponent of China's One-Child
Policy Sentenced to Labor Camp, Tortured in Custody, Human Rights Group Says
10/7/2004 2:35 PM
(Kaisernetwork) A Chinese woman who has campaigned against China's one-child-per-family policy for 15 years has been sentenced to time in a prison labor camp and allegedly has been tortured while in custody because of her protests, according to a Human Rights in China statement released on Wednesday, Reuters/Yahoo! News reports. Mao Hengfeng in 1988 was fired from her job at a Shanghai soap factory for becoming pregnant with a second child (Reuters/Yahoo! News, 10/6).
Mao carried her pregnancy to term despite "severe pressure" from the government to have an abortion, the AFP/Australian reports. Mao -- who had become pregnant again -- then sued the soap factory for firing her, and the presiding judge told her he would rule in her favor if she aborted her pregnancy, according to HRIC, the AFP/Australian reports.
Mao aborted her seven-month-gestation pregnancy against her wishes, but the court ruled against her, saying that because she violated China's family planning policy, the factory had a right to dismiss her (AFP/Australian, 10/6). Click here for the full story
Now, dangers of a population implosion
10/7/2004 2:36 PM
(CSM) "Honey, please, please have a baby." That could be a mother's plea to a married daughter. It's also the request, in less homey language, of many governments.
For decades, much has been written about the world's exploding population. But 60 countries, about a third of all nations, have fertility rates today below 2.1 children per woman, the number necessary to maintain a stable population. Half of those nations have levels of 1.5 or less. In Armenia, Italy, South Korea, and Japan, average fertility levels are now close to one child per woman.
Barring unforeseen change, at least 43 of these nations will have smaller populations in 2050 than they do today.
This baby dearth has potentially weighty economic consequences for governments worried about everything from economic vitality to funding future pension programs and healthcare. That's why many of them have been taking measures designed to encourage their citizens to multiply. Click here for the full story
Wall Street Journal Examines Possible 'Overhaul' of China's One-Child Policy
10/6/2004 3:36 PM
(Kaisernetwork) The Wall Street Journal on Monday examined how China is reconsidering its "controversial" one-child-per-family policy as a result of the social and economic impacts of the program. As a "first step" in reviewing the policy, the Chinese government earlier this year appointed a task force of more than 250 experts to study the impact of population trends on economic development. The one-child policy has drawn international criticism for its "sometimes-brutal implementation at local levels," including large fines for extra children and forced abortions and sterilizations, according to the Journal. Click here for the full story
Court Rules Chinese Refugee deemed "Eligible for Asylum" in U.S. because of Wife's Forced Abortion
9/8/2004 10:01 AM
(LifeSiteNews.com) SAN FRANCISCO, A Chinese man who sought refuge in the U.S. and was originally denied asylum has been granted a reprieve by a U.S. appeals court. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the original judge had overlooked that Chinese officials had forcibly aborted Xiao Lan Zheng's first child, and threatened to sterilize his wife after their second child was born.
Zheng and his wife, Xiu Qin Wen, were married in a traditional ceremony despite not having attained to the legal age for marriage in the country. When Wen became pregnant with their first child at 19, officials forced her to abort the baby because she was not legally married in their eyes -- all unwed mothers in China are forced to abort their children.
Three years later, Wen gave birth to a baby girl. Government officials requested that the couple apply for legal recognition of their marriage. They also ordered her to be sterilized, to prevent the couple from exceeding the country's one-child law.
Click here for the full story
Click here to comment on this article
China faces future as land of boys
9/8/2004 10:19 AM
(CSMonitor.com) In the past two decades in China, female births have declined markedly compared with male births. The official figure - which some say is slightly low - is 117 boys for every 100 girls, based on a 2000 census. In ordinary populations, the split is closer to 104 boys for every 100 girls. Skewed sex ratios are also appearing elsewhere in Asia, particularly India, where the ratio in the state of Punjab is 126 to 100. A tilt toward male births is also beginning to be 126 to 100. A tilt toward male births is also beginning to be seen in the Caucasus and parts of Latin America and Eastern Europe.
Click here for the full story
Click here to comment on this article
Canada's Rude Surprise
8/24/2004 12:34 PM
(PRI) The nation of Canada is the latest Western country to receive a rude shock; namely, that it doesn't have enough children. Reporter Norma Greenaway reported for the CanWest News Service in the "National Post" of August 9, a story headlined, "'Import' More Youngsters, Ottawa Urged: Immigrants, Refugees: Needed to Counter Declining Fertility Rate, Analyst Says." 1
The analyst in question is Tom Kent, whom Greenaway labels "a one-time social policy guru for the Liberal party." Greenaway writes that "Kent was a senior policy advisor to Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson and was one of the chief architects of some 1960s social programs, among them medicare and the Canada-Quebec Pensions Plan."
Click here for the full story
Click here to comment on this article
US will Grow, the Rest of World Shrinks, says Report
8/24/2004 12:40 PM
(C-fam.org/CWNews.com/ewtn.com) A report released this week by the UN's Population Reference Bureau (PRB) claims that almost all of the developed world will face serious and sustained population decline over the next five decades except for the United States, where an above-replacement fertility rate and immigration will account for continued population growth.
The report, entitled "2004 World Population Data Sheet," says, "The United States is one of few countries in the world whose fertility rate is not falling." In fact, "Among the developed countries, only the United States is likely to see significant growth" in population. The report predicts that the US population will grow from its current 294 million to a level of 420 million by 2050.
Click here for the full story
Click here to comment on this article
China targets boy-girl birth imbalance
8/24/2004 12:52 PM
(BP) WASHINGTON, China is seeking to compensate for its vast gender imbalance in the wake of two decades of a coercive population control policy that has resulted in the killing of many girls, unborn and born.
China's National Population and Family Planning Commission reported Aug. 11 on a Care for Girls pilot project that provides financial incentives to rural families that give birth to and rear girls, according to China Daily. Government inducements for families with only daughters include insurance, educational fees, housing, employment, job training and welfare.
Click here for the full story
Click here to comment on this article
Ageing society may kill risk-taking
8/10/2004 1:45 PM
(The Straits Times) WASHINGTON - Singapore's greatest exposure to China's future birth dearth will be through the economy.
'If the Chinese demographic bubble bursts, the Asian financial contagion will come back from a completely different cause,' said Mr Phillip Longman, author of the book The Empty Cradle.
While much of the world is entranced by China's rise, he is exploring the darker implications of its falling fertility and rising longevity.
Fewer newborns in the world's most populous country can skew its internal development, global influence and even appetite for war.
Domestically, China's zealous one-child policy is resulting in the 4-2-1 problem, in which one child will one day support two aged parents and four grandparents.
Click here for the full story
Click here to comment on this article
China Adopts New Population Policy That Financially Rewards Farmers Who Have Few Children
8/5/2004 1:07 PM
Click here for the full story
Click here to comment on this article
Violence Warning Over Asia's 'Surplus Men'
7/29/2004 11:03 AM
Click here for the full story
Click here to comment on this article
90 Million Missing Females, and a $45 Trillion Gap
7/27/2004 12:51 PM
Click here for the full story
Click here to comment on this article
China Hopes to Fix Gender Imbalance Among Newborns by 2010
7/16/2004 10:20 AM
Click here for the full story
Click here to comment on this article
Population of India to overtake China's within 30 years
7/14/2004 12:25 PM
Click here for the full story
Click here to comment on this article
China's Forced Abortion Machinery Grinds On - UNFPA Disinformation Campaign Continues - US Funding Should Not.
7/7/2004 11:38 AM
Click here for the full story
Click here to comment on this article
Europe in Deep Depopulation Trouble as 1 in 5 Women in UK Sterilized
6/29/2004 11:04 AM
Click here to comment on this article
The Inherent Racism of Population
Control
5/19/2004 1:06 PM
Click here for the full story
Click here to comment on this article
China Admits its Girl Shortage Caused by One Child Policy is a "Major Threat"
5/12/2004 10:58 AM
Click here for the full story
Click here to comment on this article
The Billionaire Bomb
5/6/2004 10:57 AM
Click here for the full story
Click here to comment on this article
USAID Unleashes More Population Control
4/12/2004 11:12 AM
Click here for the full story
Click here to comment on this article
World Population Growth Slowing Due to Declining Fertility Rates, AIDS Epidemic, Census Bureau Report Says
3/23/2004 9:37 AM
Click here for the full story
Click here to comment on this article
United Nations Meetings on Population Control Promotes Abortion, Bashes Bush
3/15/2004 9:52 AM
Click here for the full story
Click here to comment on this article
40m Bachelors and No Women ...
the Birth of a New Problem for China
3/9/2004 2:27 PM
Click here for the full story
Click here to comment on this article
|
|
