Up to a million Indian mothers illegally abort their female fetuses every year in India, and police are discovering the remains in toilets or gutters. Effects on the sex ratio have been dire, with 817 females to every 1,000 males in Punjab.
The procedure has become a moneymaker for thousands of private doctors, who allegedly use ultrasounds to determine the sex of the child and encourage women to abort if it is a girl.
Officials are trying to educate people about the issue, and gain control of private hospitals and clinics where such procedures are performed.
Sources:
“Foeticide issue continues to rock Rajasthan”
Indo Asian News Service, March 23, 2007
“A cry to save the girl child”
Indo Asian News Service, March 20, 2007
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If this trend for aborting baby girls continues, India may some day cease to be the second largest country in the world, population wise.
Countries who want to have baby boys must also provide baby girls, or there will not be any mothers to provide the sons. At this point in human development, it takes a man and a woman to produce a child.