Miriam Yeung of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum says a sex selection abortion ban in Arizona targets Asian Americans for a problem that doesn’t exist, reports Salon.
The law requires doctors to quiz a woman for the reasons why she is seeking an abortion. The law would ban any abortion based on the gender of the child.
Sex Selective abortions have lead to an imbalance of sex ratios in certain countries in South and East Asia, but is rarely practiced in the U.S.
The National Asian Pacific Women’s Forum has joined a lawsuit challenging the Arizona law.
Yeung warns the law would lead to racial profiling of Asian American women and have a chilling effect on providers.
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“Our claim is that this bill was written with racial discrimination and prejudice at its inception,” Yeung explains. “While debating the bill, legislators testified in support of it by saying things like, ‘We don’t want those people bringing this stuff here, these values here.’”
Five other states have laws similar to Arizona’s. Some of the laws have provisions banning abortions based on race. You can read more about that in Salon.
