Bangladesh court bans disclosure of unborn child’s sex

High Court announces full verdict; move aimed at preventing femicide in South Asian nation

SM Najmus Sakib
11 May 2026

The Bangladesh High Court on Monday ruled against disclosing the sex of a fetus in the womb in a move aimed at preventing femicide.

The bench, comprising Justice Naima Haider and Justice Kazi Zinat Hoque, announced the full verdict in the case filed in 2020. The court earlier issued a short order in February 2024.

Continued: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/bangladesh-court-bans-disclosure-of-unborn-child-s-sex/3933664

11.05.2026

News

Edward Pallab Rozario

sex selection abortion

Asia

Bangladesh

Law

India – Sons at any cost

Three decades after the PCPNDT Act, sex determination rackets thrive across India, proving laws alone can’t defeat a son-obsessed culture.

Oct 19, 2025
Vitasta Kaul

In September 2025, Karnataka’s Health Department conducted a covert operation in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh to prevent a woman from undergoing illegal prenatal sex determination. The 30-year-old from Mandya district, already a mother of three daughters, had approached an agent across the State border after learning she could determine the sex of her foetus. When told the foetus was female, she planned to terminate the pregnancy in her fifth month. Officials from both States coordinated a decoy operation that dismantled the illegal network facilitating these cross-border procedures.

It was not an isolated case. In April, Haryana’s Rohtak district authorities busted a sex-determination racket operating out of neighbouring Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh. Over 120 FIRs have been registered this year in the State for illegal abortion practices, including unlawful sale of Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) kits, while nearly 300 of Haryana’s 1,500 MTP centres have had their registration cancelled or voluntarily surrendered. In Ahmedabad, a June raid uncovered a radiologist and nurse conducting sex-determination tests and abortions at guesthouses and patients’ homes.

Continued: https://frontline.thehindu.com/social-issues/illegal-sex-determination-india-pcpndt-failure/article70181889.ece

India – Arrest of doctor for 242 illegal abortions highlights how woman’s rights over body is a travesty

Ironically, it is women who are largely the pall-bearers of this self-inflicting, self-indicting and self-violating mindset.

by Bala Chauhan
04th December 2023

BENGALURU : The arrest of a doctor, Chandan Ballal, and his lab technician Nisar, who allegedly conducted more than 900 illegal abortions over the past three years at a hospital in Mysuru, and the arrest of nine persons in the Byappanahalli police station jurisdiction in Bengaluru, for allegedly performing 242 illegal abortions in the last three months, have raised serious concerns over two issues -- both are anchored around women’s rights, or lack of them, over their reproductive health.

While there’s not much clarity on whether all these said illegal abortions were carried out after the sex of the foetus was disclosed to the couple by the radiologist, or because of other reasons, the incidents confirm that women lack authority or propriety over their own reproductive health.

Continued: https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/karnataka/2023/dec/04/arrest-of-doctor-for-242-illegal-abortions-highlights-how-womans-rights-overbody-is-a-travesty-2638463.html

Doctor who did 900 illegal abortions arrested

Bengaluru police have arrested a medical doctor who allegedly performed 900 illegal abortions in the last three years, or 20 every month, under an elaborate sex-determination-cum-female foeticide racket

Chetan B C
Nov 26, 2023

Dr Chandan Ballal and his lab technician, Nisar, were arrested last week, police sources said. Dr Ballal reportedly charged around Rs 30,000 for each abortion.

Continued: https://www.deccanherald.com/india/karnataka/bengaluru/doctor-who-did-900-illegal-abortions-arrested-2785849

26.11.2023

News

Dr Chandan Ballal

Mysuru Matha Hospital

Nayam Kumar

Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act

Rizma Khan

sex determination

sex selection abortion

sex selective abortion

India’s abortion law still lacks a rights-based approach, gynecologist says

India's abortion law is progressive, but it is also problematic, says Dr. Suchitra Dalvie, a practicing gynecologist in Mumbai, India. The co-founder and coordinator of the Asia Safe Abortion Partnership unpacked the law and recent amendments to it with The World's reporter Chhavi Sachdev.

May 12, 2022
By Chhavi Sachdev

In India, abortion has been legal — within certain confines — for more than 50 years.

India's abortion law is progressive, but it is also problematic, says Dr. Suchitra Dalvie, a practicing gynecologist in Mumbai, India.

Continued: https://theworld.org/stories/2022-05-12/indias-abortion-law-still-lacks-rights-based-approach-gynecologist-says

India’s abortion law — ahead of its time in 1971 but now behind science, societal demands

India’s abortion law — ahead of its time in 1971 but now behind science, societal demands
Abortion has been legal for 48 years but is still not based on women's rights. Moreover, experts argue it isn't in line with current medical and societal standards.

Aneesha Bedi and Apoorva Mandhani
Updated: 3 June, 2019

New Delhi: Two years ago, in August 2017, the Supreme Court refused to grant permission to a 10-year-old school-going rape survivor from Chandigarh to abort her 32-week-old foetus. The apex court relied on a medical board report, which warned that abortion would risk the girl’s life.

This despite the girl having told the court that her body was not ready for childbirth. She was forced to deliver, giving birth to a baby girl soon after.

Continued: https://theprint.in/india/indias-abortion-law-ahead-of-its-time-in-1971-but-now-behind-science-societal-demands/244884/

India – Madurai botched abortion: Two member fact-finding mission to investigate

Madurai botched abortion: Two member fact-finding mission to investigate
Ramuthayi, who was seven months pregnant, died on Sunday following a botched abortion.

TNM Staff
Friday, September 21, 2018

Less than a week after the discovery of a botched abortion in Madurai which led to the death of a 28-year-old woman, a probe panel has been constituted by the Directorate of Medical and Rural Health Services to investigate the death.

According to a report in the Times of India, a two-member fact-finding mission will investigate the incident that took place in Usilampatti in Madurai district.

Continued: https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/madurai-botched-abortion-two-member-fact-finding-mission-investigate-88708

A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
Restricting Abortion Access in the Name of Women's Rights

By Suchitra Dalvie
Posted Aug 31, 2018

We need more girls to be born, they say. We need to stop the gendercide that is taking place across the world, they say. For social justice. For women’s rights. For human rights.

This is a compelling argument when taken at face value, and one that is commonly heard in many countries in Asia and among the Asian diaspora elsewhere. But, if we take a moment to examine it more closely, the true nature of the discourse becomes clear. It sounds as though it is for women’s rights but, in reality, it puts restrictions on women using the excuse of sex determination.

Continued: https://consciencemag.org/2018/08/31/a-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing/

Indian women need better access to safe abortion practices

Indian women need better access to safe abortion practices

Written By Nidhi Jamwal
Wednesday 27 December 2017

Finally, we have comprehensive and credible data on abortions in India. A one-of-its-kind study on abortion and unintended pregnancy, recently published in The Lancet, has estimated that 15.6 million abortions occurred in India in 2015. This is more than double the previous (2004) estimate of 6.4 million annual abortions in the country, of which one-third were ‘informal’ or performed by medically unqualified people.

The recent study has put together robust data to show that 81 per cent abortions are medication abortions, ie, termination of pregnancy using medical abortion drugs. Only 2.2 million, or 14 per cent, abortions are performed surgically, whereas the remaining five per cent abortions are ‘probably unsafe’.

Continued at source: http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column-indian-women-need-better-access-to-safe-abortion-practices-2570774

27.12.2017

Lancet study abortion in India

Medical Termination Of Pregnancy (MTP) Act

sex determination

sex-selective abortion

India, Maharashtra: 19 Foetuses Found in Sangli District in Suspected Abortion Racket

Maharashtra: 19 Foetuses Found in Sangli District in Suspected Abortion Racket
By The Wire Staff on 07/03/2017

Mumbai: On Tuesday, March 6, the police arrested a doctor couple, who were on the run, in connection to the 19 foetuses found dumped near a stream in a village in Sangli district of Maharashtra.

The Sangli police on March 5 found 19 foetuses dumped near a stream at Mhaisal village in Miraj block in Sangli. The foetuses were wrapped in plastic bags and were either in the process of decomposition or remains of flesh and bones.

The police came across this racket of illegal abortions while probing the death of a woman during an abortion at the private hospital of Dr Babasaheb Khidrapure, a homeopath. The foetuses have been sent to the government hospital in Miraj to determine if the foetuses are male or female.

Continued at source: The Wire: https://thewire.in/114678/maharashtra-sangli-district-abortion-female-foeticide/

07.03.2017