Sex- and Race-Selective Abortion Bans - Why are they Harmful to AAPI Women?
May 4, 2018, 10:45am Sung Yeon Choimorrow
Many proponents of these bans, including former Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, claim a concern for the well-being of babies and women. Yet, they have otherwise failed to commit themselves to advancing equity and protections along those lines.
Two weeks ago, the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court ruled that an Indiana abortion ban based on the race, gender, or apparent disability of the fetus—originally signed as part of an omnibus law by then-Gov. Mike Pence in 2016—is unconstitutional. We should celebrate this as a victory in that it sends a strong message to lawmakers considering similar abortion bans in the future. We should also, however, realize the ruling’s potential for inspiring and restructuring the legal groundwork that can help make reproductive justice a reality for all.
Sex-selective abortion bans have been one of the most popular types of abortion bans, especially after 2013. These bans are based on the misguided and racist assumption that Asian American women exhibit a preference for sons over daughters. For instance, the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act of 2013, which would have enacted these restrictions on a federal level, lays bare the racist beliefs behind the so-called need for a sex-selective abortion ban: “Evidence strongly suggests that some Americans are exercising sex-selection abortion practices within the United States consistent with discriminatory practices common to their country of origin, or the country to which they trace their ancestry.”
A 2014 report from the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) showed just the opposite: Chinese, Korean, and Indian American women are, on average, actually having more female babies than white American women.
Many proponents of these sex-selective bans, including former Gov. Pence, claim a concern for the well-being of babies and women. Yet, they have otherwise failed to commit themselves to advancing equity and protections along those lines.
In fact, sex-selective bans are just the latest iteration of laws that aim to silence women and take away their bodily autonomy. Lawmakers have tried for decades to convince voters that women do not deserve abortion access, citing all kinds of unfounded reasoning. They have used a variety of tactics—including misinformation, deception, and xenophobia—in attempts to pass these abortion bans.
Women of color especially have found themselves at greater risk of losing reproductive care as a result of these kinds of actions. In particular, attacks on Planned Parenthood, the attempted rollback of the Affordable Care Act, and increasingly restrictive abortion laws all disproportionately impact non-white women. The examples are simply too numerous to list in full. In March, lawmakers in Mississippi moved to pass the “Gestational Age Act,” banning all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. This is one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion bans yet, and one that local activists say will hurt Black women who need abortion care the most. In another case from a few weeks ago, the Missouri House passed HB 1867, a race- and sex-selective abortion ban that targets women of color—in particular, Asian American women.
