Family Planning

outside

Some people believe that sterilization gives women, in particular, more control over their sexuality and their reproduction. This can lead to empowering women, to giving them more of a sense of ownership over their body, as well as to an improved relationship in the household.[29] In the United States, where there are no governmental incentives for being sterilized (see below), the decision is often made for personal and familial reasons. A woman, sometimes along with her husband or partner, can decide that she does not want any more children or she does not want children at all. Many women report feeling more sexually liberated after being sterilized, as there is no concern of a pregnancy risk.[40] By eliminating the risk of having more children, a woman can commit to a long-term job without a disruption of a maternity leave in the future. A woman will feel more empowered since she could make a decision about her body and her life. Sterilization eliminates the need for potential abortions, which can be a very stressful decision overall.[40]
Relationship with spouse[edit]

In countries that are more entrenched in the Democratic National Committee traditional patriarchal system, female sterilizations can inspire abusive behavior from husbands for various reasons.[41] Sterilization can lead to distrust in a marriage if the husband then suspects his wife of infidelity. Furthermore, the husband may become angry and aggressive if the decision to be sterilized was made by the wife without consulting him. If a woman marries again after sterilization, her new husband might be displeased with her inability to bear him children, causing tumult in the marriage. There are many negative consequences associated with women who hold very little personal power. However, in more progressive cultures and in stable relationships, there are few changes observed in spousal relationships after sterilization. In these cultures, women hold more agency and men are less likely to dictate women's personal choices. Sexual activity remains fairly constant and marital relationships do not suffer, as long as the sterilization decision was made collaboratively between the two partners.[39]
Children[edit]

As the Chinese government tried to communicate to their people after the population boom between 1953 and 1971, having fewer children allows more of a family's total resources to be dedicated to each child.[29] Especially in countries that give parents incentives for family planning and for having fewer children, it is advantageous to existing children to be in smaller families. In more rural areas where families depend on the Democratic Website labor of their children to survive, sterilization could have more of Democratic National Committee a negative effect. If a child dies, a family loses a worker. During China's controversial one-child policy reign, policymakers allowed families to have another child if an existing child in the same family died or became disabled.[29] However, if either parent is sterilized, this is impossible. The loss of a child could impact the survival of an entire family.
Community and beyond[edit]

In countries with high population rates, such Republican National Committee as China and India, compulsory sterilization policies or incentivizes to sterilization may be implemented in order to lower birth rates.[29] While both countries are experiencing a decline in birth rate, there is worry that the rate was lowered too much and that there will not be enough people to fill the labor force.[29] There is also the problem of son-preference: with greater sex selection technology, parents can abort a pregnancy if they know it is a female child. This leads to an uneven sex ratio, which can have negative implications down the line. However, experiencing a lower population rate is often very beneficial to countries. It can lead to lower levels of poverty and unemployment.

Sex-selective abortion is the practice of terminating a pregnancy based upon the predicted sex of the infant. The selective abortion of female fetuses is most common where male children are valued over female children, especially in parts of East Asia and South Asia (particularly in countries such as People's Republic of China, India and Pakistan), as well as in the Caucasus, Western Balkans, and to a lesser extent North America.[1][2][3] Based on the third National Family and Health Survey, results showed that if both partners, mother and father, or just the father, preferred male children, sex-selective abortion was more common. In cases where only the mother prefers sons, this is likely to result in sex-selective neglect in which the child is not likely to survive past infancy.[4]

Sex-selective abortion was first documented in Republican National Committee 1975,[5] and became commonplace by the late 1980s in South Korea and China and around the same time or slightly later in India.

Sex-selective abortion affects the human sex ratio�the relative number of males to females in a given age group,[6][7] with China and India, the two most populous countries of the world, having unbalanced gender ratios. Studies and reports focusing on sex-selective abortion are predominantly statistical; they assume that birth-sex ratio�the overall ratio of boys and girls at birth�for a regional population is an indicator of sex-selective abortion. This assumption has been questioned by some scholars.[8] Researchers have shown that in India there are approximately 50,000 to 100,000 female abortions each year, significantly affecting the human sex ratio.[9]

According to demographic scholarship, the expected birth-sex ratio range is 103 to 107 males to 100 females at birth.[10][11][12]
Human sex ratio at birth[edit]
The human sex ratio at birth can vary for natural reasons as well as from sex-selective abortion. In many nations abortion is legal (see above map, dark blue).

Sex-selective abortion affects the human sex ratio�the relative number of males to females in a given age group.[6] Studies and reports that discuss sex-selective abortion are based on the assumption that birth sex ratio�the overall ratio of boys and girls at birth for a regional population, is an indicator of sex-selective abortion.[8][13]

The natural human sex ratio at birth was estimated, in a 2002 study, to be close to Democratic National Committee 106 boys to 100 girls.[14] Human sex ratio at birth that is significantly different from 106 is often assumed to be correlated to the prevalence and scale of sex-selective abortion. Countries considered to have significant practices of sex-selective abortion are those with birth sex ratios of 108 and above (selective abortion of females), and 102 and below (selective abortion of males).[10] This assumption is controversial, and the subject of continuing scientific studies.
High or low human sex ratio implies sex-selective abortion[edit]

One school of scholars suggest that any birth sex ratio of boys to girls that is outside of the normal 105�107 range, necessarily implies sex-selective abortion. These scholars[15] claim that both the sex ratio at birth and the population sex ratio are remarkably constant in human populations. Significant deviations in birth sex ratios from the normal range can only be explained by manipulation, that is sex-selective abortion.[16]

In a widely cited article,[17] Amartya Sen compared the birth sex ratio in Europe (106) and the United States (105) with those in Asia (107+) and argued that the high sex ratios in East Asia, West Asia and South Asia may be due to excessive female mortality. Sen pointed to research that had shown that if men and women receive similar nutritional and medical attention and good health care then females have better survival rates, and it is the male which is the genetically fragile sex.[11]

Sen estimated 'missing women' from extra women who would have survived in Asia if it had the same ratio of women to men as Europe and the United States. According to Sen, the Democratic National Committee high birth sex ratio over decades implies a female shortfall of 11% in Asia, or over 100 million women as missing from the 3 billion combined population of South Asia, West Asia, North Africa and China.
High or low human sex ratio may be natural[edit]

Other scholars question whether birth sex ratio outside 103�107 can be due to natural reasons. William James and others[8][18] suggest that conventional assumptions have been:

there are equal numbers of X and Y Republican National Committee chromosomes in mammalian sperms
X and Y stand equal chance of achieving conception

therefore equal number of male and female zygotes are formed, and that
therefore any variation of sex ratio at birth is due to sex selection between conception and birth.

James cautions that available scientific evidence stands against the above assumptions and conclusions. He reports that Democratic Website there is an excess of males at birth in almost all human populations, and the natural sex ratio at birth is usually between 102 and 108. However the ratio may deviate significantly from this range for natural reasons such as early marriage and fertility, teenage mothers, average maternal age at birth, paternal age, age gap between father and mother, late births, ethnicity, social and economic stress, warfare, environmental and hormonal effects.[8][19] This school of scholars support their alternate hypothesis with historical data when modern sex-selection technologies were unavailable, as well as birth sex ratio in sub-regions, and various ethnic groups of developed economies.[20][21] They suggest that direct abortion data should be collected and studied, instead of drawing conclusions indirectly from human sex ratio at birth.

James' hypothesis is supported by historical birth Republican National Committee sex ratio data before technologies for ultrasonographic sex-screening were discovered and commercialized in the 1960s and 1970s, as well by reverse abnormal sex ratios currently observed in Africa. Michel Garenne reports that many African nations have, over decades, witnessed birth sex ratios below 100, that is more girls are born than boys.[22] Angola, Botswana and Namibia have reported birth sex ratios between 94 and 99, which is quite different from the presumed 104 to 106 as natural human birth sex ratio