In Pascagoula, Mississippi, Signal International hired hundreds of guest laborers in India, promising them greencards and permanent residency, along with well-paying jobs.  Many of the workers spent their life savings or even sold their houses to pay the fee for H2-B visas, but upon arriving here, were only given the temporary visas, paid half of what they were promised, and found their living conditions squalid.

About a week ago, company representatives and armed security guards raided the workers’ camp, took 6 workers, and locked them in a room, saying they would be deported to India.  One of the workers, Sabu Lal, even slit his wrists hoping that his self-mutilation would keep him from deportation.  He was recently interviewed on Democracy Now: 

“How I can go back to India? There is nothing. My family is waiting for me to fulfill their wishes by earning something from America. They are dreaming to come to America. These guys cheated me. From India, for ’til I come here, they cheated me, and family is cheated…They are treating us like slaves. And whenever we making some comments, they are saying that ‘Just shut your mouth.’”

In India, men outnumber women by 8%.  In most western countries, women outnumber men by 3%.

What could cause this discrepancy?  A number of factors, but according to most experts in India, one of the causes of the 882 females for every 1,000 males in India is anti-female selective reproductive procedures.  This can include anything from termination of a female foetus due to an ultrasound, to female infanticide.  The Guardian recently published an excellent article on the subject, delving into issues of patriarchy, the culture of marriage, and resulting trafficking due to the shortage of women in many parts of India.  I could write an entire post on the article itself, but that’s not what this is about.

 The article compelled me to once again mentally hash out my pro-choice views.  I’m fiercely pro-choice and feminist, I wholeheartedly support Gloria Steinem’s famous words, “In my heart, I think a woman has two choices.  Either she’s a feminist or a masochist.”  But mass termination of female foetuses is decidely anti-feminist—and more than that, reeks of eugenics.  Yet, I am fiercely pro-choice.

I am PRO-CHOICE, and ANTI-SELECTION.  This means that although I will fight to guarantee a woman the right to terminate a pregnancy for any reason, I do not fundamentally believe that as a soceity, abortion should be an excuse for eugenic-related selection--for example, an aversion to having a female child, or because the child will be born with certain mental or physical disabilities.