Vatican Statement on Status of Women

We would also do well to examine why women and especially younger women are so vulnerable. This appears to be due to the inferior status bestowed upon women in certain places and upon female infants in particular. In some local traditions they are thought of as a financial burden and are thus eliminated even before birth. In this way, abortion, often considered a tool of liberation, is ironically employed by women against women.

Even those allowed to live are sometimes considered as if they were a piece of property best disposed of as soon as possible. This is to be found in many parts of the world, due to prejudicial traditions extraneous to what should be a universally available and safe nurturing environment for girls. Besides the usual thriving channels of trafficking in persons, even the institution of marriage is sometimes misused to give a safe façade to sexual exploitation and slave labor by means of what is known as "mail order brides" and "temporary brides."

Zenit