CONTENTIOUS

House Weighs Sex-Based Abortion Ban

Bill would make gender-based abortion a federal crime.

A ban on gender-based abortions was up for vote in the House on Thursday. The legislation that would make it a federal crime to carry out an abortion based on the sex of a fetus. The measure is aimed at abortions of female fetuses, a common practice in Asian countries such as India and China that is also believed to take place in the U.S. The bill is mainly backed by Republicans who see the vote as an issue of gender bias at a time when Democrats are accusing the GOP of waging a war on women. Meanwhile, opponents of the law, including the Obama administration, Democrats, and abortion-rights activists, argued that the bill only further limits a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy and could potentially lead to racial profiling of Asian-Americans.