All the Missing Girls

There are now an estimated 160,000,000 fewer women than there "should" be in the world. That figure is calculated from natural sex ratios (male births to female births) and life expectancy, and shows that something very unnatural is occurring.

In demographic terms, I can't imagine there's ever been a bigger impact with less awareness than what's happened to cause this massive imbalance:

The scale of that number evokes the genocidal horrors of the 20th century. But notwithstanding the depredations of the Chinese politburo, most of the abortions were (and continue to be) uncoerced. The American establishment helped create the problem, but now it’s metastasizing on its own: the population-control movement is a shadow of its former self, yet sex selection has spread inexorably with access to abortion, and sex ratios are out of balance from Central Asia to the Balkans to Asian-American communities in the United States.

Forget the politics. Everyone--Chinese, American, liberal, conservative--should recognize that this is tragic.