That's just mothers exercising their body autonomy rights. Unless it can be shown that they are being forced to abort, I really don't see a problem.
This is actually very common in rural parts of India. Families often force the women to abort female children. The reasons are given in the article: In India's patriarchal society, male children are seen as future breadwinners and caregivers who have an obligation to look after their parents when they age.
> I really don't see a problem
A skewed sex ratio has _very_ serious implications for the country, and I say this as an Indian. I don't know enough about this subject to elaborate, but there are many other comments in this thread that you should read.
I don't know if you got the memo, but equal rights is a pretty Big Thing lately.
I'm pretty sure most mothers would have preferred to keep all their children, and a society without women isn't going very far.
Before I get pummeled for that just be honest here. As soon as we state it is okay to abort for personal choice the discussion ends there. Why do we get to call in the woman's choice simply because we don't like the reason.
It will get to be seriously interesting if DNA testing comes common place and women or couples decide to abort for reasons from sex, skin color, and if ever proven genetic orientation.
You cannot have it both ways. Either the woman is in control of her reproductive process or she is not. There is no, but....
It is incredibly common where you can do something for almost any—or no—reason, but that doesn't mean you can do it for a bad reason. For instance, in the US: a business can refuse service to anyone. But, that doesn't mean they can refuse service to someone because they are black. If you live in certain states, your company can fire you at will, for no reason whatsoever. But they can't fire you because you're a woman.
You could also argue that this is basically eugenics--selectively breeding/aborting to get a desirable trait, which in this case is sex.
That's one of the reasons why abortion is so contentious. To some personal freedom and choice outweigh any negative consequence to society. To others the well-being of society outweighs personal freedom. It's the same reason why gun ownership and drug use is contentious.
"Most countries in the European Union allow abortion on demand during the first trimester, with Sweden, the UK and the Netherlands having more extended time limits. After the first trimester (Ed : after 12 weeks), abortion is generally allowed only under certain circumstances, such as risk to woman's life or health, fetal defects or other specific situations that may be related to the circumstances of the conception or the woman's age." [1]
I'd imagine it's either very late abortion, or straight post delivery murder. Which is more problematic.
Also, if having a son is so important for them, there is a reason for that. We are talking about very poor people. Whole thing is about their material well-being!
The reason having a son is so important to them is that they're treated like shit and forced to work their ass off to survive.
None of this is fine, it all has to change if we want to go anywhere worth going.