Last week, India watched in shock as the media presented the story of Vijayamala Patekar, a 30-year-old woman who hemorrhaged to death on an operating table while getting an abortion for her fifth female child. The state took the living children under its care, and arrested Vijayamala’s husband for aborting a female child.

The Patekar family’s story is truly sad, and gave the media an opportunity to discuss gender discriminations in the district of Beed (Maharashtra, India), where the sex ratio is cause for national embarrassment: 702 girls for every 1000 boys (2011).

But while illegal abortions are the focus of the media’s discussions, this case actually brings a lot more to light.

First, the death of Vijayamala might be more complicated than it seems. She was a 30-year-old woman forced to undergo the physical stress of five pregnancies in 12 years just so her family could have a male heir. Her womb would have become so flabby that she would have hemorrhaged after her delivery.So what needs to be condemned here really is not the final act that killed her, but the fact that her health was never taken into consideration by her husband or his family.

Secondly, it’s wonderful to know that the state will educate the four children left behind. But these are only four of India’s many unwanted daughters: girls who lived only because their parents had no access to a sonogram. Families often mistreat such girls: feed them poorly, do not educate them, or abuse them physically. Shouldn’t India take a cue from this case and start providing support for all such girls?

Thirdly, the media needs to be more careful in not vilifying abortions: abortion in this case is a misused tool, and not the cause of the skewed sex ratio. As Shohini Ghosh wrote on Kafila, “Sex-selecive abortions are not the problem but a symptom of a much larger malaise. The struggle to end violence and discrimination against women is a battle to be fought on many fronts.”

Finally, by focusing on abortions, instead of gender discrimination, the media largely focuses on doctors involved in sex-selective abortions. This does nothing to improve sex ratios; it only drives women to get unsafe abortions in untrained hands. Several such women die, or suffer life-threatening complications, further reducing the number of women in India.

As I close this blog, I’d love to leave you with a question: After China, there’s a lot of talk about forced abortions, but aren’t forced pregnancies such as Vijayamala’s just as bad?