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A congressional bill to ban sex-selective abortions and those based on race—the so-called PRENDA bill—poses as a defender of gender equity and racial justice. Sujatha Jesudason says its real effect would be to undermine both.
In this editorial by Sujatha and Julia Epstein, argue that the disability rights framework offers the pro-choice movement its best opportunity to shift the abortion debate from a medical argument about fetal pain and viability to a positive, potentially game-changing platform on overall human rights.
We hosted an online Webinar to discuss the release of our latest report: Forensic DNA Database Expansion: Growing Racial Inequalities, Eroding Civil Liberties and Diminishing Returns. The report highlights some key issues: growing racial inequalities, eroding civil liberties and diminishing returns.
“Restricting women’s rights and questioning their decision-making is an utterly misguided approach to promoting gender equality”, said Sujatha Jesudason, Executive Director, Generations Ahead. “Our real challenge is to change the context in which sex selection occurs,
and address gender and racial equality issues while protecting the right of all women to make the best reproductive decisions for themselves and their families.”
Sujatha Jesudason and Julia Epstein write about the “unfortunate paradox that arises when pro- and anti-choice advocates talk about disabilities. On one hand, reproductive rights proponents can portray disability as a tragic state that justifies abortion,” while on the other hand, “anti-choice advocates proclaim their value for all life, including individuals with and without disabilities.”
Sujatha joined two other scholars to discuss issues facing the future of families. For her part Sujatha discussed “What’s a Feminist to Do? How New Anti-abortion Strategies and New Technologies are Reconfiguring the Debate over Sex Selection, Race and Abortion”
Sujatha was invited to contribute a commentary in this weeks “Room for Debate: Making Laws About Making Babies.” She concludes, “Before we go down the tricky and contentious path of regulating family making, let’s first make a concerted effort to give families, doctors, insurance companies and fertility clinics the easiest opportunity to do the right thing. And only if that doesn’t work, let’s then talk about regulation.”
In this age of too much effort to control our unpredictable world, let us all strive to shift our emphasis from “What kind of child do I want?” to “What kind of parent do I want to be?” -Susannah Baruch
Tackling the real gender inequality and stereotypes that lead to sex selection, including infringements on women’s choices, is the only way to have people regard potential daughters with the joy and expectation too many reserve only for sons.
Sujatha discusses ways sex selection raises complex social and cultural questions in Asia, Asian American communities and for the reproductive justice movement around the world. Discussion begins at minute 36:45.
Generations Ahead is mentioned as an organization that has prioritized the issue of sex selection
Article mentioning Generations Ahead’s research on “family balancing.”
Magazine includes an article about sex selection written by Generations Ahead
Blog linking to the sign-on statement about disability rights and reproductive rights.
Blog linking to the sign-on statement about disability rights and reproductive rights.
Generations Ahead is one of four organizations highlighted in, How Four Social Justice Organizations Succeeded in the Face of Financial Insecurity
Sujatha Jesudason responds to the efforts to regulate sex selection as a foreshadow for emerging attempts to regulate assisted reproductive technologies.
Video interview of Sujatha Jesudason.
Written interview with Emily Galpern.
Written interview with Emily Galpern, Miriam Yeung, Jackie Payne, Kierra Johnson.
Audio interview with Sujatha Jesudason, Aimee Thorne-Thomsen and Mia Mingus.
Audio Interview with Debora Spar and Emily Galpern.
© 2008-2012 Generations Ahead, a Project of the Tides Center