On Thursday, the House rejected a bill that sought to make it a federal crime to perform gender-based abortions or to force someone to undergo one. The vote was 246-168 – twenty votes short of the majority needed. 

There is no evidence that gender-selection is practiced in the United States.  The male to female birth ratio in the U.S.A. is within normal parameters and is even slightly higher than worldwide rates (105/100, as opposed to 107/100).  Despite this fact, the bill was brought and the matter was put to a vote.   Republicans and anti-choice activists even tried to shame House members into voting for the ban:  National Right to Life Committee’s legislative director Douglas Johnson implied that voting against it was “escalating a war on baby girls”. 

If we are going to start legislating against things that are not happening in order to protect girls and women from a non-existent threat, then we need to immediately present a bill banning Christians from burning women as witches.  Witch burnings may not be a widespread problem in the U.S.A., but then again, neither are gender-based abortions.  Christian-led witch burnings have occurred recently in Africa and gender-based abortions are performed mainly in Asia.   A witch-burning ban actually makes more sense because it actually happened in American history.  In  the 17^th centuries, Christians did burn witches in the colonies.  Gender-based abortions, on the other hand, have never been a policy in U.S. history.  Now, right-wing Christian males often complain that American women  are “too feministic”; if that is true, then the gender-based abortion argument fails, since feminists do not subscribe to patriarchal notions that boys are more preferable.  Feminists value females as EQUAL to males; a fact which angers radical right-wing Christians who believe males are superior.  To pretend that they are suddenly worried about the plight of females is patronizing and ridiculous.

In keeping with the GOP’s philosophy that we must ban things that are not actually happening,  a bill banning Christian witch burnings is long overdue.  Anyone voting against Christian witch burnings will be “escalating a war on [girls and women]”.