Christian Science Monitor Examines Rise in Number of Sex-Selective Abortions in India, Resulting Gender Imbalance

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 09 Feb 2005 - 15:00 PDT

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The..... Christian Science Monitor on Wednesday examined the rise in the number of sex-selective abortions in India and the resulting gender imbalance in the population. Although the government for "decades" has been aware of the practice of killing newborn girls, any progress in stemming that practice has been counterbalanced by an increase in the prevalence of sex-selective abortion, the Monitor reports. Now, many couples -- with the aid of medical technology, "weak" enforcement of laws banning abortion based on a fetus's gender and the cooperation of "unethical" physicians -- choose to terminate pregnancies if the fetus is female, worsening India's already "awkwardly skewed gender ratio," according to the Monitor. In 1981, there were 962 girls under age six for every 1,000 boys of the same age in India, but that disparity had widened even further by 2001, with 927 girls per 1,000 boys. Although some observers say that the government and doctors need to do a better job enforcing current laws banning infanticide and sex-selective abortions, others say that the trend will not change until women in India are empowered and traditional attitudes favoring male children fade (Girish, Christian Science Monitor, 2/9).

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