Overheard: Sex selection abortions haunt Indian woman

From an article in PRI's The World on sex selection abortions:

Anu is now 50 and can no longer get pregnant, but she can’t completely move on. She says the four abortions haunt her.

“I feel a very strong connection to the pregnancies,” she says. “Even now, I remember them all. When I sit doing nothing, I remember them all.”

Now, every time something goes wrong in her life, she thinks she is being punished. When her husband gets sick, she blames the abortions. When she has trouble finding suitable husbands for her daughters, she blames the abortions.

Anu used to pray and ask for a son. Now, she prays and asks for forgiveness.

“I aborted a child,” she says. “I feel I’ve sinned.”