On the day the Supreme Court ruling in the United States marked a turning point on the right to life, seven fetuses were being found near a bus stop in Belagavi, India. According to doctors, they were around five months gestation and were presumably killed after sex detection. The slaughter of baby girls the dark side of pregnancy terminations in India.
Mumbai (AsiaNews) - Seven aborted fetuses were found abandoned in a container in Belagavi district, Karnataka state. It happened on Friday, June 24, just as the world was debating the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on abortion laws and the right to life. Residents of Mudalagi found the fetuses near a bus stop on the outskirts of town and informed the police. The Karnataka Department of Health ordered an investigation into the incident.
"The fetuses were around five months old. It is presumable that after fetus sex detection they were killed," said Mahesh Koni, the district health and family welfare officer. This is not the first time such incidents have happened in the area: also in 2013 at least 13 fetuses were found on the banks of the Hiranyakeshi River in Belagavi.
Since 1971, Indian law has allowed abortion by the 24th week if the continuation of the pregnancy poses a risk to the woman's life or serious harm to her physical or mental health. But in reality-despite being theoretically prohibited by law-the practice of selective abortion, with the suppression of the lives of girls, is widespread.
Dr. Pascoal Carvalho, a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV), comments to AsiaNews, "On the day that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on abortion heralded a 'new pro-life dawn,' overturning Roe v. Wade, in India we were faced with this horrific... These girls were murdered, no less: female infanticide is a heinous crime. It is a huge tragedy, this anti-life and anti-woman mentality will have serious consequences on society."
"Recent reports from many states in northern India," Dr. Carvalho continues, "reveal that 'safe' abortions are being performed against what is stipulated in the 1994 law that prohibits tying them to sex determination tests. Several clinics and doctors have been arrested for this."
While today there are those who call the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on Roe v. Wade "horrific and medieval," as Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, put it, it should be seized upon as a "powerful invitation to reflect" because "by choosing life, our responsibility for the future of humanity is at stake."