Kenyan indian women aborting baby girls

city Indians
abort girls
There is mass abortion of baby girls
among Indian women in Nairobi.
The problem is so widespread that a
leading Nairobi hospital has banned ultra-
scans to determine the sex of unborn
babies for Indian mothers who say
bringing up a girl “is like watering a
neighbour’s garden.”
These risky terminations of pregnancy
before term is fueled by gender disparity
and traditional Indian beliefs,
investigations by The Nairobian now
reveal.
The huge cultural preference for boys,
says sociologist Faith Nafula Atsango, “is
mainly because of the enormous
expenses involved in marrying off girls
and paying elaborate dowries.”
Nafula adds that in 1996, India passed a
law banning gender testing on a foetus as
its patriarchal society has long been based
on a simple need for male heirs, often at
the expense of unborn females, who are
widely seen as an economic burden.
Indeed, the abortion of female foetuses is
common knowledge, and Indian parents
expecting girls will readily abort.
Lilian Kiarie* a 30 year old mother went
to the hospital for a scan to know her
baby’s sex but was told the hospital no
longer did scans unless it was to check
out for abnormality in a foetus. “I later
found out that scans have been stopped
by the hospital because many Indian
women abort if the baby is female,” says
Lilian.
The hospital in question took The
Nairobian in circles, first transferring us
from the Maternity to Administration,
then the Communications Department
before being taken back to Maternity. A
nurse here admitted that the hospital’s
management no longer issues scans
especially to Indian women who pay
dearly to get rid of baby girls.

“There hasn’t been official
communication to us, but that’s the
general position. We don’t condone
abortions and so we won’t scan babies
sex if it will lead to abortion” the nurse
explained.
According to Dr Richard Ong’ech, the
head of gynecology at Kenyatta National
Hospital, it’s possible to know the sex of
a baby at 20 weeks. “In Europe or China,
it is also possible to know the sex of a
baby even at four to five weeks through
chromosomal testing.”
It is difficult to know the sex of the baby
until the foetus is more than 20 weeks
old. Since it’s not the usual pregnancy
termination that occurs in the first three
months, the Indian women will go for
seasoned doctors who will perform
‘partial-birth abortion.’
In this procedure, the baby is pulled from
the mother with its feet first, with the
head still remaining in the womb. The
doctor then drills a hole in the skull to
take out the brain, making it easier to
collapse the head and take out the
foetus.
An 19 year old Asian man who helps run
a family restaurant says, “A woman with
ten daughters, but no son could as well
be declared barren. I will expect a son.
It’s the way we are brought up,” he says
between puffs of Shisha in Nairobi West.
So when an Indian woman has a girl for a
first-born, the second born has to be a
boy or the pregnancy will be terminated.
“Look at many Asian families. Is it a
coincidence that there must always be a
boy child? Even the ones who are
educated in Britain will come home and
still abort the girl child,” he says,
revealing the name of several high profile
Asians whom he claims had their wives
abort until they got a boy.
“My father’s family had two boys. My
uncle has one daughter and a son. The
difference between their ages is almost
seven years. I am the first born in my
family. My younger brother is two years
younger than me,” says the man whose
family also runs a chain of educational
institutions.

Standard news

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