Enacting a ban on sex-selective abortion and gender-selection technology would affirm a Christian vision of dignity for all human life, especially females.

The 2012 defection of Chen Guancheng - a vocal opponent of China’s one-child policy - highlighted the tragedy of sex-selective abortion in other countries. Sex-selective abortion is indeed appalling because it combines two evils that subvert human dignity: elective abortion and gender discrimination. Yet even as the United States defends the dignity of girls and women abroad, very little has been done to prevent these same evils here at home.

Because of advances in genetic testing technology, parents in the U.S. no longer need to wait until 18 to 20 weeks into pregnancy for an ultrasound to determine the gender of their unborn child. Over-the-counter genetic testing can determine the sex of a fetus as early as eight to ten weeks, making the decision to abort unwanted girls (or boys) easier for some. For parents using in vitro fertilization (IVF), many clinics will perform genetic tests on the embryo prior to implantation in the mother’s uterus. Gender is only one of many characteristics which can be chosen with this technique, called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). Some fertility clinics will also allow parents to influence the gender of their child by sorting X from Y sperm so that only the desired sperm is used for inseminating the mother.

Recognizing the danger, other Western countries - Canada, France, Germany and Switzerland, among others, all of which have liberal elective abortion regulations - have banned sex-selective abortion and some, such as the United Kingdom, have also banned gender selection via PGD. However, no federal laws in the U.S. prohibit sex selection, and only four states have banned sex-selective abortion. Recent attempts to pass federal legislation in the U.S. failed, largely because of opposition from the pro-choice community.

Aware that their opposition to legislation prohibiting gender discrimination puts them in an awkward position, some abortion advocates in the U.S. argue that sex-selective abortion is a problem worldwide, but not in America. According to an analyst at the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion-rights think tank, "The experience of other countries has clearly demonstrated that [sex-selective abortion] bans are not only ineffective, but they further exacerbate gender discrimination by undermining women's autonomy and creating additional obstacles to women's health care."