Sex-Selective Abortion and Gendercide

This week, house Republican's forced a bill onto the floor that would ban sex-selected abortion. The bill had no chance of passing, but that was never it's intent: the whole point of the bill's existence was to force Democrat lawmakers into voting against the bill. The issue is part of the larger "war on women" narrative that has painfully inserted itself into the campaign and if the tactic works the way it was intended, the public will perceive Democrat nay voters as standing up for abortion rights over women's rights. In an era when the terms abortion rights and women's rights are conflated, this distinction will be a hard one to draw. In the following internet video by the pr0-life group Live Action, you can the distinction drawn much more clearly than the House legislators could do.

By framing the debate as "Gendercide" against baby girls, Live Action hopes to stir a nascent reaction against gender bias. In the following video, you can get a good glimpse at how divisive the issue has become.

As a pro-lifer, I obviously have problems with sex-selected abortions or abortions of almost any kind, but at the same time it saddens me that the issue is now simply a political football. Although a few states have passed sex-selective abortion bans (Oklahoma for example), the bill designed for the house floor had no intent of ever passing, it was simply a political ploy. In the end, the divisive bill just provided an opportunity for each team to rally their base.