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Mara Hvistendahl is pro-choice, except when she is not.

She believes a woman should have the right to terminate a pregnancy. Except if she is in China or India and wants to abort a female fetus because she was hoping it was a male. In those countries, the toll of “missing” girls is in the millions, despite existing bans on sex-based abortions.

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While she said a ban in the Asian context “makes complete sense,” she is solidly against a U.S. bill that would criminalize the practice in America — the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act introduced by anti-abortion Republican Trent Franks last November.

Because it uses the words “child” or “girl” instead of “fetus,” the bill is “more about creating a precedent for a fetus equaling a life … than about restoring the balance of boys and girls in the world,” said the author of last year’s Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men.