On Abortion and Sex selection

River valley in eastern Taiwan.

Was trolling Google scholar and this caught my eye: from this 2008 paper on using abortion as a sex selection device after the laws were relaxed in 1985-6 period:

Using an individual level dataset constructed from birth and death registries for all individuals born in Taiwan during 1982-89, we find that the legalization of abortion significantly increased the fraction of males born. The effect comes entirely from third and higher-parity births and children born to mothers over the age of 28. For those groups, abortion increased the fraction of males born by 0.7 percentage-points for post-reform cohorts on average (from 51.5 percentage-points in 1982-84 to 53.5 percentage-points by 1989), accounting for nearly 100% of the observed increase in sex imbalance during this period. The results on sex-differential mortality show that legalizing abortion decreased EFM by 25%. Our results suggest that approximately 15% of parents selecting post-natally before the reform would have substituted to abortion as a method of sex-selection. Taken literally, this suggests that for every 100 abortion of female fetuses, 15 lives of girls born are saved.

What they mean by the last is this: when sex-selection abortion is forbidden, the sex ratio at birth moves back toward the natural norm. But then a large number of unwanted female children are born. What happens to them? One way or another, all over the world, a portion are killed via stealthy or open infanticide. Because fewer females are born in Taiwan, there is less infanticide of female children...
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Does Taiwan's Low Birthrate Stem From Sexual Dissatisfaction?

Patrick Cowsill put up a very interesting post arguing that low levels of satisfaction with the sex life are responsible for Taiwan's low birthrates.

According to recent reports, Taiwan's women are not sexually satisfied. This might account, at least partially, for Taiwan's low birthrate, which is anywhere from 2nd lowest to 5th lowest in the world, depending on whose stats you're looking at. As it is, Tawian's birthrate is at around 1.2 if you count transnational marriages; these marriages account for around 20% of all the babies being born in the country today. It's much lower than that if you want to disregard the "foreign" effort, some say even .91. To sustain a healthy rate of population growth, it needs to be around 2.1.

I personally think that sexual satisfaction has very little to do with the birthrate. The study that Cowsill cites for Taiwan's low sexual satisfaction -- a conclusion that I agree with wholeheartedly after many years of listening to women here -- also notes that Austria has the highest sexual satisfaction. Their conclusion was that societies where male dominance is the order of the day experience the lowest levels of sexual satisfaction. Continuing from Cowsill's site:

a.) Chicago Tribune (April 19, 2006): "Survey of 29 nations shows male-centered cultures least satisfied, finds that the most sexually-satisfied are 1. Austria, 2 Spain, 3. Canada, 4. Belgium, 5. U.S.A. and the LEAST SEXUALLY SATISFIED are: 1. Japan, 2. Taiwan, 3. Indonesia, 4. China, 5. Thailand."

Look who is 1 and 2 -- Austria and Spain. Yet birth rates in those countries are nearly as low as Taiwan's. Clearly sexual satisfaction isn't an issue in the birthrate.

The real explanation for Taiwan's low birthrates may well be connected to male dominance, but not crudely through sexuality. First, a large number of females in their 20s and 30s are effectively living without men. Statistics vary, but in both Taiwan and Japan, somewhere between a fifth and a third of all females are not married (Japan has some of the world's lowest out of wedlock birth rates) and not planning to be married. That is an important consequence of the rising standards of females on the island, and the lagging standards of the males.

Second, much sex takes place in contractual form -- prostitution is widespread and socially approved -- and is unlikely to lead to children, another bit of fallout from male dominance.

Third, the cost of having children in Taiwan is astronomical and rising, so people have fewer of them. Male dominance affects this in two ways. I suspect that the low involvement of Taiwanese fathers in child rearing drives women to have fewer children. I suspect also that patriarchy is responsible for the lower emphasis on children's needs in local society as well, since adult male needs have the greatest priority.

Fourth, contraceptives are easily obtained and in widespread use, as is abortion -- Taiwan has very high abortion rates.

Your thoughts?

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