The value of girls

I have been moved by this BBC News article today which talks about the foeticide of girl babies.

The horror of the situation has me in tears.  The way women are being forced to abort their baby girls by their extended families, unforgivable.

I try never to comment on cultures I don't experience; nothing is ever as straight forward as it can appear from the outside. But if this story is right then the abortions are about money and prestige.  I understand that the culture means girls leave the family at marriage and therefore boys are "needed" to care for their elderly parents; but that does not excuse abortions.

This story has hit me especially hard because I am the mum of a girl; a beautiful girl, a girl with a life ahead of her with endless possibilities, a girl who's aim in life is NOT to look after me, but to do whatever she chooses.  

I am also the mum of boys who couldn't survive pregnancy; a mum who lives with the loss of her babies daily.  It happened TO me, I lived through it.  I know the value of all babies, any babies, all gender, any gender.

I pray that this news today might start to make a cultural change, protecting the lost generation of girls.

In the meantime this song came to my mind: