Disparity In Sex Ratio Increases In Vietnam

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 07 Jul 2009 - 5:00 PDT

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Sex-selective abortion among families in Vietnam with a cultural preference for boys has contributed to a sex ratio of 112 male infant births for every 100 female births in the country, according to a government official, the AP/Yahoo! News reports. According to the AP/Yahoo! News, many doctors in Vietnam do not comply with a 2003 law prohibiting the disclosure of a fetus' sex. Duong Quoc Trong, deputy director of the General Office for Population and Family Planning, said that the birth rate in 1999 was considered close to the natural rate, with about 107 boys born for every 100 girls. Since 2006, the ratio of boys to girls has steadily increased and approached a rate similar to China's imbalance 20 years ago, he said.

Trong added that the government intends to more strictly enforce the country's ban on sex-selective abortion. The Ministry of Health recently confiscated more than 2,600 books that claim to describe ways to conceive a male child, such as special diets, MOH Deputy Chief Inspector Nguyen Dingh Bach said. He added that the ministry also ordered seven Web sites to remove articles describing such methods (AP/Yahoo! News, 7/2).

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