Chris Smith: “I want to thank the distinguished chairman for yielding and for his leadership in helping to bring this legislation to…”

“I want to thank the distinguished chairman for yielding and for his leadership in helping to bring this legislation to the floor, and especially Chairman Chabot for his Girls Count Act of 2013. I am happy and thankful to be an original cosponsor and to urge the House to vote for it. Mr. Speaker, in many parts of the world, girls are discriminated against simply for being female. Indeed, this blatant disregard for the value of the girl child often begins in the womb, especially in countries such as China and India, where we see the horrific practice of sex-selection abortion. This cruel practice, in turn, has led to a gender imbalance that has fed other crimes against women, especially sex trafficking, which has risen exponentially in the People's Republic of China because of the missing daughters, because of this discrimination against the girl child in utero. Let me point out that, in her book, ``Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men,'' Mara Hvistendahl traces the history of sex selection to population control. Again, we don't count the girl as being of meaning. Of course, this is talking about a physical count, so we have a record of these young ladies, of these young girls, but there are consequences, again, that continue throughout the life or the lack of because she is destroyed early on.…”