tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37309767.post3541917588239653021..comments2024-01-04T13:54:21.297+04:00Comments on Social Science in the Caucasus: Abortion rates in the South Caucasus among the highest in the worldHansGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02363857450625734125noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37309767.post-75254486225367633472010-04-21T09:15:25.843+04:002010-04-21T09:15:25.843+04:00In the paper “Sudden Increase in Sex Ratio in Cauc...In the paper “Sudden Increase in Sex Ratio in Caucasian Countries. Why and How?”, France Mesle, Jacques Vallin and Irina Badurashvili present data that show that gender selective abortions are the highest if the women already gave birth to two girls.Therese Svenssonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03122798735599194401noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37309767.post-73834225048829273072010-04-21T09:05:20.037+04:002010-04-21T09:05:20.037+04:00Posted by Molly Corso:
First let me say I think ...Posted by Molly Corso: <br /><br />First let me say I think it is great you are starting a dialogue about these issues. I have a couple of thoughts, and would be interested in hearing what gender specialists think.<br /> <br />(1) According to the Institute for Sociology and Demography in Tbilisi the official data on births in Georgia is sketchy. So the statistics that the Economist chart is based on may not fully represent the situation in the country.<br /> <br />(2) Abortions are largely used in Georgia as a form of birth control. It has as much to do with poverty as it does with a Soviet legacy (among women, their partners and their doctors) about the perceived dangers of birth control pills and the costs of other birth control methods.<br /> <br />(3) I am not a specialist on this topic but based on the interviews and conversations I have had with Georgian women from both urban and rural communities -- and all socio-economic backgrounds -- is that gender selected abortions are more common when a family already has one or two girls and is trying for a boy as their third child.<br /> <br />Food for thought.Therese Svenssonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03122798735599194401noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37309767.post-47891501850590475172010-04-20T11:16:59.809+04:002010-04-20T11:16:59.809+04:00As you can see from the previous blog post on gend...As you can see from the previous blog post on gender imbalance (and comments made on this post) data show that there’s an abnormal high number of boys being born in the region. We are not questioning that the high abortion rates are strongly related to the lack of modern contraception methods but one should also not disregard the fact that there are more boys than girls being born (to the the extent that it cannot be explained by the work of nature). We don’t see the similar numbers in Western Europe. We are all aware of the explicit preference for boys in for example parts of China but the data nevertheless indicate the presence of selective induced abortions also in the South Caucasus. As pointed out though, we would be happy to receive suggestions for up-to-date research on these issues.Therese Svenssonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03122798735599194401noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37309767.post-44139162295625536742010-04-19T20:56:01.243+04:002010-04-19T20:56:01.243+04:00Inge: did you see the previous post, and its comme...Inge: did you see the previous post, and its comments? I don't think this is an assumption. <br /><br />Hansxcaucasushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03601943503579408752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37309767.post-72394348525997091022010-04-19T19:49:39.968+04:002010-04-19T19:49:39.968+04:00I find the assumption that there probably is some ...I find the assumption that there probably is some form of selective abortion incredibly far-fetched, and have doubt that in Georgian society baby-boys are being favored over baby-girls, (more then in the West?) - in comparison to Asia (China, south-east asia) and the Arabic world.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15491792869680638275noreply@blogger.com