Wednesday March 29, 2006
Abortion Doctor in India Jailed Under Female Foeticide Law
by Hilary White
PALWAL, India, March 29, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – For the first time in India since the law against sex selection abortions was put in place, an abortionist has been sentenced to jail time for using ultrasound technology to determine the sex of an unborn child for purposes of abortion.
Dr. Anil Sabsani was caught in the act by authorities who sent a “customer” to have a sex-selection in order to obtain an abortion. Recordings of the encounter show that Dr. Sabasani assured the decoy that “it would be taken care of.”
Local news sources say that convictions cannot usually be obtained because private witnesses become hostile, but in this case the recordings made the difference.
The doctor and his assistant were sentenced to two years in prison and a Rs 5000-fine by the court in Palwal, Haryana.
Newindpress.com says Dr. Sabsani has four other complaints pending in the courts.
The law, passed 12 years ago, says it is illegal to “use prenatal diagnostic techniques… for the purpose of determining the sex of a foetus.” Despite the law, authorities find it nearly impossible to obtain convictions. Radhika Kaul Batra, senior advocacy officer, United Nations Population Fund, said to Newindpress, “The lacunae in the PNDT Act is the implementation rather than the Act itself.”
A study published in the Lancet said that India kills as many as half a million baby girls by abortion annually. The study’s authors cited the availability of ultrasound scans which has made it easier for women to target girls earlier in pregnancy.
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
500,000 Girls Aborted Per Year in India new Study Finds
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/jan/06010909.html
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