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Pink or Blue, Any One Will Do
Does having access to abortion overturn patriarchy? Here is one perspective.
In the wake of the furor over abortion laws in Alabama and Louisiana what is the connection between access to abortion and women’s rights, in other countries? With or without access to abortion, women have always been sidelined when it comes to decisions about having a baby. In India, where women do have access to abortion, the preference for male children drives social and cultural practices that further entrench patriarchy.
A few years ago, I came across an online pregnancy store that catered exclusively to a pregnant clientele. Besides vitamins and baby books, it sold a diagnostic kit that could conclusively predict the sex of an unborn child. As early as seven weeks into gestation, with a few drops of the pregnant woman’s blood, the kit claimed that it could predict the sex of the fetus within 48 hours with greater than 95% accuracy. To make this prediction, the highly sensitive technique uses real-time polymerase chain reaction to analyze fetal DNA circulating in maternal blood. As a scientist I celebrated this application of cutting-edge technology, but as an Indian woman brought up in a culture that has traditionally favored males, I dreaded its implications and applications.
Growing up in Bombay (now Mumbai) as the only girl child, born between two boys, my…
