# Sex selective abortion in China and India **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 29, 2020, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-selective-abortion-in-china-and-india/847146 "2020-01-29T02:43:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2020, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-selective-abortion-in-china-and-india/847146/41 "2020-02-03T10:41:44Z")
> [@am77494](#): > > I am writing this is in the context of India. First of all it is a totally reprehensible problem. However, the government and people of India have taken many steps to stop this. > > 1. It was made illegal in 1994 for sonograms to detect the sex of the fetus. This law is very well enforced and all Indian parents do not know the sex of the fetus. Do you have a cite for this, as the Internet is littered with articles claiming otherwise. [For example](https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/08/15/a-generation-of-girls-is-missing-in-india/): > [@](#): > > Although it has been illegal nationwide for doctors to disclose the sex of a fetus since the 1994 Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, the ease of ordering cheap and portable ultrasound machines, especially online, has kept the practice of sex-selective abortions alive. > > Although exact numbers of such terminations are not available, according to the first national study on abortion overall, an estimated 15.6 million abortions took place in India in 2015. ---
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2020, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-selective-abortion-in-china-and-india/847146/42 "2020-02-04T15:13:14Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > Do you have a cite for this, as the Internet is littered with articles claiming otherwise. [For example](https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/08/15/a-generation-of-girls-is-missing-in-india/): Here is a cite from Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 52, Issue 1 January 2020 , pp. 27-36 What has contributed to improvements in the child sex ratio in select districts of India? A decomposition of the sex ratio at birth and child mortality DOI: [https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021932019000221](https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021932019000221) > [@](#): > > The improvement was decomposed into: (1) less sex-selective abortion and (2) improved girl compared with boy mortality. \*\*Most of the improvement in child sex ratios were shown to be due to reductions in sex-selective abortion, \*\*although this still made up the majority of the cause of imbalanced sex ratios in 2011 Bolding mine Your cite seems to be blog with personal opinions. For example Abortion in India has been legal since 1971, so total number of abortions is a misleading figure in the context of this thread. It certainly needs more work. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2020, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-selective-abortion-in-china-and-india/847146/43 "2020-02-04T20:59:36Z")
> [@am77494](#): > > Here is a cite from Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 52, Issue 1 January 2020 , pp. 27-36 > What has contributed to improvements in the child sex ratio in select districts of India? A decomposition of the sex ratio at birth and child mortality > DOI: [https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021932019000221](https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021932019000221) > > > [@](#): > > > > the improvement was decomposed into: (1) less sex-selective abortion and (2) improved girl compared with boy mortality. Most of the improvement in child sex ratios were shown to be due to reductions in sex-selective abortion, although this still made up the majority of the cause of imbalanced sex ratios in 2011 > > Bolding mine > Your cite seems to be blog with personal opinions. For example Abortion in India has been legal since 1971, so total number of abortions is a misleading figure in the context of this thread. It certainly needs more work. What are you arguing? In your earlier post you claimed that > [@you](#): > > This law is very well enforced and all Indian parents do not know the sex of the fetus. yet the cite you have says the opposite to what you stated. Sex-selective abortion still makes up the majority of the cause of imbalanced sex ratios in 2011. Do you have a cite to support your argument that “all Indian parents do not know the sex of the fetus”? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-selective-abortion-in-china-and-india/847146.md?page=2)