In recent months, the Medical Council of India (MCI) has begun demanding explanations from doctors in India who offer sex-determination tests to abort children of an undesired sex, mainly girls.
The Dec 4 edition of The Lancet notes that the Indian Medical Association (IMA) regards this development as a “test case” to see what punishment can be meted out to abortionists and ultrasonographers “who provide sex-determination tests aimed at selective abortion of female fetuses”.
While the Indian government banned sex-determination for the purposes of selective abortion 5 years ago this is the first time any action has been taken.
Sex-selective abortions have led to a severe imbalance in the proportion of men and women in the Indian population.
The Lancet reports “a decreasing girl-to-boy birth ratio—from a countrywide average of 935:1000 in 1981 to 927:1000 in 1991.” Thus currently there is are over 730,000 men who will be unable to have wives.
See the Lancet. (registration required)