BERGEN COUNTY RIGHT TO LIFE

Sex-selection abortions in India

A new study appearing in Britain`s premier medical journal estimates that up to 10 million sex-selection abortions may have occurred in India in the past 20 years.

The Lancet reported that researchers examined data from an Indian study of 6 million people living in 11 million households nationwide. Looking at information about 133,738 births, scientists discovered that girls were twice as unlikely to be born to educated mothers as uneducated ones -- implying those who are educated and have greater financial means were more likely to use an ultrasound to determine the gender of their child and have an abortion.

Based on the gender ratio in other countries, the study estimated that 136 to 138 million girls should have been born in 1997 in India, for example, but only 131 million births of girls was reported, the Associated Press said in a story.

Speaking of the past two decades, the Lancet article said, "We conservatively estimate that prenatal sex determination and selective abortion accounts for 0.5 million missing girls yearly....a figure of 10 million missing female births would not be unreasonable." (source: AP).

Like China and other Asian nations, cultural beliefs place huge favor and greater importance on the birth of boys. The Indian government has prohibited sex-selection abortions, but by 2001, the gender gap had risen to 35 million, and now experts estimate it to be as high as 50 million.