Adam Serwer took Douthat to task for claiming that "female empowerment often seems to have led to more sex selection, not less." Ross replies:
[W]hile there probably exists a point of development at which the bias toward sons dissolves (or at least weakens sufficiently to create a stigma around sex selection), the gradual transition from patriarchy to gender equality creates a long period in which women themselves choose to abort more girls than boys. And if you believe, as Serwer does, that you simply can’t have genuine female empowerment without unrestricted abortion, then there’s nothing to be done except learn to live with this reality, try to hasten the day when Asia becomes Scandinavia, and hope that gender ratios don’t get too skewed along the way.
Serwer goes another round. Earlier discussion on the subject here and here.
The Dish 