Why 'gendercide' is the largest act of violence against women globally | Opinion

Violence against women “is one of the most widespread, persistent and devastating human rights violations in our world today."

Days such as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women were created by the United Nations as part of a noble effort to put an end to such violence, but there is hypocrisy in the ranks of this movement that must be noted.

Abortion.

Modern feminists and the U.N. itself have declared limiting access to abortion as a form of torture. Yet, 140 million girls are estimated to be "missing" due to sex-selective abortions.

Before sonogram technology was developed, female infanticide and child abandonment were common in cultures that favored male children over females. Once prenatal gender determination technology became available, it led to an astronomical number of gender-based abortions (a form of "gendercide").

Not only has the practice led to up to a 25% disparity in male-to-female births in some parts of the world since the 1990s, but it's also shown to have increased sexual violence and trafficking.

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Gender-based violence causes suffering to women

Groups claiming that abortions empower women will simultaneously decry gender-biased sex selection as discrimination. So, which is it? Empowerment or discrimination?

Having the right to abort a daughter because a son is preferred is either a part of a woman's right to choose or it is not.

It can't be both.

During the 1993 U.N. General Assembly, the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women would further clarify this brand of violence as "any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women."

The intentional starvation, burning, or dismemberment based solely on gender is not only physical violence by the U.N.'s definition but also sex discrimination.

It's simple. Abortion does not empower. Abortion exploits vulnerable women for profit, perpetuates evil and long-standing cultural oppression of girls and women, and destroys the dignity of human life within and outside the womb.

Abortion is a lie.

Why is it a lie? Because the female fetus is indeed a human with equal moral worth to her mother despite her state of total dependence. In fact, the fetus and mother must have equal moral significance, or else we have zero grounds for the pursuit of justice for any member of the human family.

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Human rights are the foundation for world justice and peace

Here's why in the United Nation's own words.

The U.N. called a convention in 1984 in which they considered "the obligation [...] to promote universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms." This convention concluded that the pathway to obtaining true justice and peace was through the "recognition of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family." These inalienable rights, they observed, were derived "from the inherent dignity of the human person."

The United Nations is correct: recognizing the inherent dignity and maintaining the inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world.

Then it should go without saying that by removing the moral distinctiveness from the tiniest human person, we then strip it from the rest of us. Essentially, we become nothing but mere animals – without conscience, conviction, or obligation to uphold the dignity of any human.

Without this obligation, then the right of the mother to kill her offspring for whatever reason exists, even if it perpetuates a system of continued violence against women.

Because it is, after all, her right to choose. On-demand. For whatever reason. Without restriction.

Nicole Smith is a resident of Franklin, Tennessee and the founder and president of Dignity Defense Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to defending the dignity of all innocent human life around the globe.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: 'Gendercide' is the largest act of violence against women globally