India turns the corner.

In the year 2000 India joined China as the only countries whose population exceeds one billion people. China, a Communist country, has tried to slow population growth by a one-child policy, ruthlessly enforced. India, a predominantly Hindu country (although with residual Judeo-Christian influences persisting from its colonial days), has recently opted instead for a decidedly pro-life policy.

In both countries, sex selection abortion has produced a critical gender imbalance in favour of boys. In India, girl babies are widely considered a liability, less useful to parents for work, and requiring an expensive dowry at the time of marriage.

In 1994 India passed laws forbidding sex-selection abortion. Yet the law is ignored with virtual impunity; in 17 years only one physician was ever prosecuted for performing sex-selection abortions. With this approach clearly not working, another approach was necessary.

For those with a taste for irony, it must be disquieting that sex-selection abortion should be the final feminist victory; like many other revolutions before it, the feminist revolution consumed its own, although seldom more literally or barbarically. Baby girls in India, many born into poverty, may be seen as the victims of those pioneers like Margaret Sanger and Betty Friedan and Germaine Greer, mostly middle-class, University-educated, Western feminists.

Faced with a crisis of unwanted baby girls, the Indian Government recently announced a new approach: The Government will set up and operate a series of geographically-dispersed orphanages reserved for unwanted girls. In making the announcement the Minister of State for Women, Renuka Choudhury, perhaps unconsciously echoed a favourite refrain of Mother Teresa: "What we are saying to the people is have your children, don't kill them. And if you don't want a girl child, bring her to us." When asked if setting up such State orphanages might encourage even more mothers to abandon infant daughters, Minister Choudhury replied: "It doesn't matter. It is better than killing them." This is an example of one word of truth undermining a revolution.

And what a murderous revolution late 20th century feminism has proved to be! By seeking to reverse the God-given order of things, it has brought in its triumphant wake every species of perversity and evil: abortion, no-fault divorce, same-sex 'marriage,' reproductive technologies, gender manipulation, and on and on. Here in Canada, the Liberal Party under its new leader, Stephane Dion, wants to extend the revolution further; his latest proposal is to set aside 40 percent of Liberal nominations for women only.

In India, it is unclear how much the new orphanages will cost or how long they will be required. And will the existence of the orphanages actually serve to increase the Indian birthrate? Many details remain unclear. It is a rare example of political courage that in the face of such unknowns, the Indian Government is nevertheless committed to action.

In April, 2007 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the ban on partial-birth abortion. The Indian Government has now announced the most pro-life policy of modern times; straws in the wind, perhaps, but let us be grateful for such glimmers of light amidst the enervating darkness of modernity.

What Catholics should be doing is urging everyone, everywhere, to read Evangelium vitae, the Encyclical issued by Pope John Paul 11 in 1995. The Holy Father foresaw with clarity just what the triumph of feminist ideology would bring; he warned of times "when people are treated as mere instruments of gain rather than free and responsible persons." Then those in authority will "poison human society, and do more harm to those who produce [such evils] than to those who suffer from the injury. Moreover,-they are a supreme dishonour to the Creator."

India, although not a Christian country, has reached the same conclusion. For, as the Holy Father wrote: "The Gospel of Life is not for the believer alone. It is for everyone."

Ian Hunter is Professor Emeritus from the Faculty of Law at Western University in London, Ontario.