#underpopulation

Greece with no industry, no proper infrastructure, and 20% unemployment: “WHY DON’T GREEKS HAVE CHILDREN??? Oh, it must be the family values declining and those WHORE women who feel whole without children!!”

Do you ever look out your car window and see street children begging and think to yourself, “This is what happens when you have too many children?” Do you believe Nigeria is overpopulated, and that this is why we are poor? In this paper, we will investigate whether Nigeria is overpopulated and the benefits of a growing and vibrant population as an incentive for economic growth if properly…

the greatest threat to long-term economic growth might be the slowdown in population growth

Without more brains to push technology forward, progress might stall.

[...] But note that in five minutes we’ve gone from worrying about overpopulation to underpopulation. That’s because we’ve traded a scarcity mindset, where growth is limited by resources, for an abundance mindset, where it is limited only by our ingenuity.

Sex-selective abortion is the act of aborting an unborn child at the stage of a foetus based on its gender, usually with the preference of male children over female children. Globally, the two countries most guilty of sex-selective abortion are India and China. Europe, USA and several other countries also share a similar pattern of preference of males of females but for discursive reasons, China will be used as a case study.

Largely frowned upon in the 21st century, this essay aims to understand why sex-selective abortions were enacted, how such actions have affected current and future issues and why such practices should be discontinued.

Why Boys over Girls?

The root cause of discriminative sex-selective abortions can be summarised as a preference for sons over daughters. Traditionally, this is due to reasons of lineage, asset and liability, productivity and legal constitutions.

In 2004, the gender gap report for China indicated a sex ratio of 121.2 : 100, boys to girls (South China Morning Post). Whilst not wholly responsible, the reason for this discrepancy in numbers as compared to the international standard of 100.1 : 100 is largely on account of the one-child policy as a method of family planning, passed in 1979 after the second world war, driven by fear of economic growth becoming negated by an unrestrained growth in population. However, the efforts proved over-effective, as China now faces a severe threat of underpopulation.

Should the firstborn be a daughter, it is possible to apply for a permit to have a second child at the cost of 500USD, in the rural areas. The penalty for birthing a second child without a permit would be 1,500USD, an estimated number between 3 – 9 times of the family’s annual income.  For poorer families living in rural China who earn their livelihood through jobs that do not garner much income, the cost of giving birth to a child as well as raising him or her into adulthood could prove to be overwhelming with total expenses considered – as of 2015, the new policy of two children instead of one have been applied, but the aftermaths of the one-child policy are still observable.

Patrilineality is practiced by families in most parts of the world and China is no exception. One of the strongest advocates of a patriarchal system where family names are passed down from  generation to generation by male members of the family; sons are considered assets to the family, as they ‘bring in’ a wife when they marry, adding onto the family and bearing the responsibility of taking care of elderly parents, whereas daughters are ‘given away’ in exchange and therefore considered a liability as they do not contribute to the family which they are borne of.

In terms of finances, men are also considered to be the breadwinners as many families who live outside of the city operate their own farmlands, with sons considered more physically competent to work in farms as compared to daughters, who are conventionally more suited for housework.

Another possible reason for the disparaging numbers reflected by China’s gender gap report would be due to an underreport of children born. A demographic report from 2000 by Daniel Goodkind explains how 19% of adolescents between 0 – 4 years of age are not registered as citizens, hence creating unaccountable faults in studies of sex ratio in China which make it difficult to collate credible information, interfering with the statistics of birth in China itself. Nevertheless, China is not the only guilty offender of prevailing irregularities in human figures – India, another country also renowned for overpopulation shares similar anomalies in relation to numbers, issues of same-sex abortion, and the overpowering preference of bearing sons to daughters.

A victim of one of the most privatised and skewed healthcare systems in the world, foeticide and femicide are one of the many unfortunate by-products of the disastrous environment created by India’s corrupted culture of its Dowry System.  

As a main factor as to why sons are preferred over daughters, a dowry in olden times referred to gifts from the father of a bride to his son-in-law, as a voluntary form of blessings and well-wishes to his daughter’s union with her husband, but in a modern day context, the dowry has been bastardized by inflated requests and demands by grooms and their families to extract a high amount of earnings through the marriage, which spirals to dowry violence and the unjust treatment of women in India because of their families being unable to pay the price of dowry.  In 1986, a campaign against Sex Determination and Sex Pre-selection fought against the discrimination of female foetus abortion in Mumbai and revealed that many expecting mothers would choose an abortion in the case of a female child as they would rather spend a small fee on abortion than their entire fortunes on their daughter’s weddings.

Laws have been implemented since 1961 banning demands of dowry, but most reports of dowry violence are overlooked and many brides married into such families often suffered in silence. Consequentially, a National Family Health Survey in 2002 revealed a disproportionately large amount of male births in specific populations, with an estimated number of 100,000 female foetuses said to be aborted annually in India once the gender of the child was discovered.

The Cost of Sex-Selective Abortion

Sex-selective foeticide is a sex crime against girls as the reasons for termination are purely based on gender and costs of these actions have already began to show through illegal human trafficking, unreported abortions, and behavioural problems in the surplus of men.

Human trafficking of girls into the bigger towns and states of India are have become commonplace in countries geographically close to India, such as Bangladesh and Nepal, or from poorer areas outside of cities and towns, with each girl being sold into marriage for an estimated 200USD, where the vicious cycle continues. The decreasing numbers of women in such societies are driven by the abortion of female children and even if denied the accessibility to safe abortion, many to-be mothers turn to illegal, riskier means of terminating their pregnancies, with many doctors already suspended due to the operations of such illegal clinics. With the lack of legal enforcements around the laws surrounding abortion, gathering concise data to gauge how much assistance the community needs becomes a challenge, which only proves to aggravates the problem of a missing gap in sex ratio.

Other than regular statistical numbers that are affixed to the controversial topic of same sex abortion, researchers neglect to address the long term psychological effect on members of communities exuding such problematic behaviour, with most studies focused on the problems surfacing from underlying issues but little actual quantifiable research done on the psychological effects for the adult humans caught up in the mess. This is in part due to costs as well as the fear of infringing on the rights of women involved as it advocates an almost ‘pro-life’ message that takes much mitigation and additional research into the strata of feminism, sex crimes, psychology, and sociology amongst several other related areas that would complicate matters substantially.

Nevertheless, 50 million girls are already missing as of 2011, based on the Canadian Medical Association. And as one of the most populated countries in the world, an imbalance in future reproductivity could be detrimental to future plans and expansions of the country.

While the numbers are speculative, there is little disagreement upon the fact that India and China will be facing a surplus of young male bachelors ranging between 10-20% in the next 20 years. Unable to find a female spouse, these men will likely face severe threats to their self-esteems and quality of life, as both China and India embrace the idea of marriage being a form of status, that starting a family indicates a promotion of adulthood and maturity. When deficient supply meets an overpowering amount of demand, women – the supply in question – go to the highest ‘bidders’. Following evolutionary rules, many poor, uneducated peasant men end up literally not being able to afford themselves a marriage, or a wife, as women now get to pick and choose while men fight for their attentions, the woman picking whomever she deems as most ‘attractive’. To summarise, marriage has turned into a rat race of a competition thanks to the one-child policy that brought same-sex abortion into practice.

Another separate issue China will face in the future would be an aging population. In 1995, China’s largest age group was 20-29 and its median age 27, but The American Enterprise predicts the largest age group to be 50-59 and its median age 40 by 2025. A long-term shortage of fertile women would lead to a decline in working manpower, hence challenging China’s ability to grow economically.

As a nation that rose rapidly in ranks due to its unprecedented increase in work force, it is predicted for China’s manpower to shrink by 10 million by 2025 and this begs the question; How would a nation facing aging population care for its elderly when the only form of social security in place for China’s poorer citizens are their family members?  

Pension funds are not readily available to people who live outside of the cities, where coincidentally, happens to be home to most of China’s poorer folks and by 2025, the children birthed during the period of the one child policy would be working to support their aged parents, signifying a decreased number of children to care for their parents in old age. Some may not even have surviving children to care for them, and left with scarce amounts of assistance to facilitate them in their later years, how will an entire generation be able to retire?

But is Same-Sex Abortion worth it?

However, some arguable pros have come out of Same Sex Abortion.

The access to prenatal sex determination results have increased the proportion of wanted births despite also increasing chances of same-sex abortion. Parents seeking help during the period of the mother’s pregnancy can receive aid from hospitals properly equipped to deal with gynaecology, with a report in 2001 (Junhong, Chu) confirming majority of hospitals in counties and towns in China to be equipped with ultra-sound machines and skilled technicians. This in turn helped to identify early signs of problems in pregnancies for interventions to be made before even the second trimesters, lowering mortality rates for mothers and children.

Sexual liberation of women due to an escalation of social statuses make them highly valuable and provided opportunities to choose potential husbands and to make decisions to their best interest, improving the woman’s self-esteem, mental health and well-being, including reduced preferences for sons, minimizing sex-selective abortions ultimately rebalancing the sex ratio in the long run.

The imbalance in sex ratio could also be a way to reduce growth and counter overpopulation, which was originally the intended effect of the one child policy in China.

However, Improved healthcare and better facilities for pregnant women should be a given, and not a way for expectant parents to get rid of unwanted daughters. Women should not have to be prized as a competitive tool for men to ascend into society via marriage and should be respected based on their own merits and accomplishments – the same being said for men who should not be ostracized because of a lack of opportunities which puts them at an unfair disadvantage, and finally, as much as overpopulation was a problem faced by both India and China, China especially has outdone itself in its efforts for population control, now instead facing underpopulation as an urgent concern that would affect all citizens of the country.

In conclusion, same-sex abortion is a traditional notion stirred by concerns of overpopulation, economic growth, and a lack of hindsight. In the current day and age, it is an irrational and indolent method of dealing with problems on part of the parties involved and it has garnered attention only recently due to the discrepancies in sex ratios that economists across the world have reported would be largely destructive to the economy.

To agree to practices of same-sex abortion, would be agreeing to the decimation of an entire country’s structure, from its working force, to its family values. Unless the Chinese government is prepared to face backlash from an entire country for its backwards policies that have put the moral grounds and wealth of the nation at risk, additional solutions to alleviate the inevitable impacts of same-sex abortion should be put forward as soon as possible to counter the damage done by decades of poorly-planned population control.

BLIOGRAPHY AND LIST OF CITATIONS:

1.       Agnivesh, Swami, et al. "Missing: 50 million Indian girls; Female foeticide." International Herald Tribune, 25 Nov. 2005, p. 8. Global Issues in Context, elibraryusa.state.gov/primo?url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A139108729/GIC?u=wash89460&xid=d5485808. Accessed 27 Feb. 2017.

2.       “China Restricts Sex-Selective Abortion.” Reproductive Health Matters, vol. 11, no. 22, 2003, pp. 200–200., www.jstor.org/stable/3776080. Accessed 27 Feb. 2017.

3.       Dalvie, Suchitra S. “Second Trimester Abortions in India.” Reproductive Health Matters, vol. 16, no. 31, 2008, pp. 37–45., www.jstor.org/stable/25475399. Accessed 27 Feb. 2017.

4.       Eberstadt, Nicholas. "Demographic clouds on China's horizon." The American Enterprise, vol. 9, no. 4, 1998, p. 54+. Academic OneFile, elibraryusa.state.gov/primo?url=http://go.galegroup.com.vlib.interchange.at/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=wash89460&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA20850417&asid=b854f18cb499581ec83c16c339c49d3b. Accessed 28 Feb. 2017.

5.       Goodkind, Daniel. “Child Underreporting, Fertility, and Sex Ratio Imbalance in China.” Demography, vol. 48, no. 1, 2011, pp. 291–316., www.jstor.org/stable/41237721. Accessed 27 Feb. 2017.

6.       Hesketh, Therese, et al. "The consequences of son preference and sex-selective abortion in China and other Asian countries." CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal, 6 Sept. 2011, p. 1374+. Academic OneFile, elibraryusa.state.gov/primo?url=http://go.galegroup.com.vlib.interchange.at/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=wash89460&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA267609577&asid=9d89d3fa33d62beb2c7c07a48bbc629c. Accessed 28 Feb. 2017.

7.       Jain, Anita. “Sex Selection and Abortion in India: Efforts to Curb Sex Selection Must Not Retard Progressive Safe Abortion Policies.” BMJ: British Medical Journal, vol. 346, no. 7902, 2013, pp. 8–8., www.jstor.org/stable/23494527. Accessed 28 Feb. 2017.

8.       Junhong, Chu. “Prenatal Sex Determination and Sex-Selective Abortion in Rural Central China.” Population and Development Review, vol. 27, no. 2, 2001, pp. 259–281., www.jstor.org/stable/2695209. Accessed 27 Feb. 2017.

9.       Murray, Charles. "Measuring abortion." Public Interest, no. 158, 2005, p. 131+. Academic OneFile, elibraryusa.state.gov/primo?url=http://go.galegroup.com.vlib.interchange.at/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=wash89460&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA126552329&asid=5257ced4ce0b25bfdc1ccf068c7a8c3d. Accessed 28 Feb. 2017.

10.   PATEL, VIBHUTI. “A Long Battle for the Girl Child.” Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 46, no. 21, 2011, pp. 18–20., www.jstor.org/stable/23017217. Accessed 27 Feb. 2017.

11.   "The damage done by the sex-selection panic, India." Reproductive Health Matters, May 2014, p. 219. Academic OneFile, elibraryusa.state.gov/primo?url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=wash89460&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA398828918&it=r&asid=75385b40ca5d6f3c078750dc8f3751c7. Accessed 27 Feb. 2017.

12.   Tucker, Catherine, and Jennifer Van Hook. “Surplus Chinese Men: Demographic Determinants of the Sex Ratio at Marriageable Ages in China.” Population and Development Review, vol. 39, no. 2, 2013, pp. 209–229., www.jstor.org/stable/41857593. Accessed 28 Feb. 2017.

13.   Zhu, Wei Xing, et al. “China's Excess Males, Sex Selective Abortion, and One Child Policy: Analysis of Data from 2005 National Intercensus Survey.” BMJ: British Medical Journal, vol. 338, no. 7700, 2009, pp. 920–923., www.jstor.org/stable/20512658. Accessed 27 Feb. 2017.