Well said Celivia and ColRouge.

Billie, as Celivia pointed out re abortion not being an ideal method for contraception is that an abortion remains a surgical procedure. There are risks attached to this. Less than with a pregnancy, but much more than with other forms of contraception. That is why it quite criminal that there is such resistance to RU486. The safest way for an abortion.

HRS: why are you linking emotional and unsubstantiated commentary on a wide range of issues negatively with feminism? As to your silly opinion on ists. What about monarchists, capitalists, evangelists, theists, nationalists, to name but a few, are those OK ists? Can I stay in Australia and be safe?

Generally the birth rate for boys has always been slightly higher than for girls. There are a few theories why this is so, one being that boys are the 'weaker sex' and not as likely to survive adverse conditions as are girls.

Why this is changing is not clear. Factors that are considered to give an explanation for this range from environmental pollution to the fact that nowadays boys are no more likely to die than are girls.

HRS: Feminists are not a separate mono-issue species. Some feminists call themselves Christians, or atheists, or environmentalists, or republicans, or monarchists, etc. etc, as well.

Women, who call themselves feminists are generally interested in a wide range of things, not only women's issues; from the political to cultural. As human beings.

Either the higher birth rates of boys in China and India reflect less stressful or polluted environments there, or they are aborting girls and we in the west are aborting boys.

Could we perhaps solve both respective imbalances by exporting some of our surplus feminists.

Billie (another aware and loving feminist),

It doesn’t take long before the real face of feminism comes shining through.

“What does it matter if there are a declining number of boys, after all you only need one sperm donor to artificially inseminate thousands of women. farmers have been doing it in animal husbandry for centuries without any ill effects”.

It appears that you have an objection to more girls being aborted than boys in India, but have no objection to using one male to artificially inseminate thousands of women, like they were some type of farmyard animal.

I suppose you will be trying to excuse yourself by saying that you are a radical feminist, but I think not.

I believe my previous summation of feminism remains correct and accurate.

Feminism = abortion, divorce, abduction of children from fathers, denigration of males, calling other people misogynist, dissemination of misinformation, living off the taxpayer, and of course artificial reproduction.

Col Ruge,
It is true that many vasectomies are carried out in India, but I’ve never heard a feminist mention this. It is also true that the rate of vasectomy and sterilization of Australian men is one of the highest in the western world, while the rate of sterilization of Australian women is one of the lowest in the western world. I’ve never heard a feminist mention this either.

I wonder why?

Yvoone,
In a natural state, a woman would not know if her unborn is male or female, so why would a feminist object to a woman not knowing if her unborn is male or female (with feminists believing in mother nature and all that).

Seeker,
I have always thought that feminism is the greatest contraceptive ever invented. With a population of 2 billion, perhaps Australia could develop an export industry, and export feminism to India. It could be similar to uranium. We export it, but don’t use it here.

Timkins: << I have always thought that feminism is the greatest contraceptive ever invented. With a population of 2 billion, perhaps Australia could develop an export industry, and export feminism to India. >>

What's that saying about giving a chimpanzee a typwriter?

At the tail end of yet another of his idiotic rants, HRSkins inadvertently said something sensible! Yes, in those places where women's status approaches that of men, the birthrate tends to decline and the use of contraception increases.

Undoubtedly, if all women in India were educated - including exposure to feminist ideas - the use of contraception would increase markedly and the birthrate would decline as it has in the West. Now, how about proliferating such 'feminist' ideas throughout the rest of the developing world...

Correct CJ MORGAN

Feminism is a most effective contraceptive.

So, it turns out, is electrification. For but ONE example see:

http://www.popline.org/docs/0336/790380.html

For more examples google with the three words: electrification birth rate

Between electrification and feminism we could probably halve the world's population in a century.

HRS,
“…have no objection to using one male to artificially inseminate thousands of women…”
Perhaps some women won’t, but I would object. Don’t assume that all feminists are misandrists. I know many women who generally like men, find many men wonderful, and think it’s important for children to have a bond with their fathers. The world would be worse off without men, without fathers. Not all feminists hate men! They have respect for men and in turn they like to be respected and liked, too.

Feminism does not, by definition, reject men.
My daughter should the same rights and opportunities as my son, and vice versa.
The things that I don’t want for my family and myself are the same things I don’t want for others, like for the women in India.
I just don’t understand why you, Seeker and Stickman have no problem with the way these women are being treated. If you have a daughter, a sister, a mother, a grandmother that you love, would you want her to be treated the way Indian women and girls are being treated?

About sterilisation/vasectomies, I only can say that a vasectomy is a much simpler, quicker and cheaper option than sterilisation. It only involves local anesthetics and takes very little time. Besides, most women whose husbands have had a vasectomy have been through childbirths, perhaps an abortion or miscarriages and many years of taking care of contraception, so for most couples it’s reasonable that the male partner takes care of the long-term contraceptive part.
You sound like you want feminists to hand out medals to men who had vasectomies- vasectomies benefit men too, if they don’t want to father more children.