Study: Sex-selective abortion bans harm maternal and infant health

A new study by Yale sociologist Emma Zang links sex-selective abortion bans to negative birth outcomes for Asian immigrant mothers.

Aug 29, 2025
By Mike Cummings

Sex-selective abortion bans (SSABs) — which prohibit the seeking of abortions based on the fetus’ sex — increase the likelihood of low birth weight and preterm births among infants born to Asian immigrant mothers, according to a new study by Yale sociologist Emma Zang.

The study also shows that the bans, which are law in 14 U.S. states, do not affect male-female sex ratios among infants born to these mothers, undermining the rationale behind them, Zang said.

Critics of the laws argue that proponents have invoked stereotypes about Asian immigrants holding a preference for male children.

Continued: https://news.yale.edu/2025/08/29/study-sex-selective-abortion-bans-harm-maternal-and-infant-health

29.08.2025

Emma Zang

gender determination

Keitaro Okura

male-female sex ratios

Melissa Tian

sex selection abortion

sex selection bans

sex-selective abortion

Illegal female infanticide on rise in Kalikot

Determination of the sex of a fetus and abortion based on the results are illegal in Nepal. Both the person conducting the test and the one requesting it can face legal action.

By Lalit Bista
April 19, 2025

KALIKOT: Determination of the sex of a fetus and abortion based on the results are illegal in Nepal. Both the person conducting the test and the one requesting it can face legal action.

However, a 28-year-old woman from Khadachakra Municipality in Kalikot recently underwent an abortion for the second time, just a week ago. She chose to terminate the pregnancy after discovering she was carrying a daughter again.

Continued: https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/illegal-female-infanticide-on-rise-in-kalikot-41-19.html

19.04.2025

News

Dr. Subhanarayan Thakur

female infanticide

sex selection abortion

India – Vanishing Daughters Part 4: Testimonies of women who have seen it all

Illegal sex determination and unsafe abortions continue to plague Haryana, claiming lives and exposing systemic legal failures, while women bear the brunt of this gender-biased crisis.

Sreya Chatterjee
Apr 14, 2025

In India’s northern state of Haryana, where the gender ratio has long been skewed against girls, the brutal consequences of illegal sex determination supported by unauthorised abortion are not just reflected in numbers—they are etched in the broken voices of the women left behind.

In this fourth instalment of our investigative series, The Vanishing Daughters, we travelled deep into the villages of Haryana to meet the families and survivors of a war waged silently, but violently, against unborn girls. Their testimonies lay bare a harrowing truth: while sex-selective abortions continue despite legal bans, it is the women—wives, daughters, mothers—who pay the ultimate price of a shady industry exploiting loopholes.

Continued: https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/vanishing-daughters-part-four-beti-bachao-beti-padhao-sex-determination-gender-bias-abortion-bride-trafficking-2708865-2025-04-14

Laws and ethics must work together to achieve gender equality

Editorial, By Surjit Singh Flora, statetimes_editor
Mar 23, 2025

Female feticide and sex-selective abortion are major issues globally, worsened by medical advancements like ultrasonography and amniocentesis that allow parents to know the fetus’s sex early in pregnancy.

… A 2022 report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) highlighted India, China, Azerbaijan, and Vietnam as the countries with the most unfavourable sex ratios. In patriarchal societies, the preference for male children, combined with smaller family sizes and sex-determination technologies, has led to a notable demographic imbalance. This imbalance has worsened issues like the increasing trafficking of women, forced marriages, and overall social instability.

Continued: https://statetimes.in/laws-and-ethics-must-work-together-to-achieve-gender-equality/

23.03.2025

Editorial

PCPNDT Act

sex ratio imbalance

sex selection abortion

sex-selective abortion

Surjit Singh Flora

UNFPA

United Nations Population Fund

India – The deep roots of daughter discrimination: Why laws alone can’t stop sex-selective abortion

Saturday, March 15, 2025

By Surjit Singh Flora

What you need to know:
Though laws like India's PCPNDT Act exist to prevent sex-selective abortion, our global community continues to witness the disappearance of millions of daughters.
Legal frameworks alone fail without addressing the deep-rooted cultural values that see daughters as burdens and sons as providers.
Only when we combine legal protections with ethical awakening in our communities can we truly achieve gender equality that values every child regardless of sex.

Continued: https://nation.africa/kenya/news/gender/the-deep-roots-of-daughter-discrimination-why-laws-alone-can-t-stop-sex-selective-abortion--4962130

15.03.2025

Commentary

female foeticide

gender discrimination

PCPNDT Act

sex selection abortion

sex-selective abortion

Why Indian Women Struggle To Get Even A Legal Abortion

While Indian policies talk about comprehensive abortion services even at primary health centres, many villages and small towns do not have these facilities, resulting in people resorting to unsafe abortion services

By Menaka Rao
24 Jan, 2025

As a girl growing up in small-town Uttar Pradesh, Pooja wanted to “get ahead in life”. She wanted to be a working woman, earn a comfortable living, and get out of the confines of her village. But her marriage soon after graduation--when she was just 21--paused her plans.

Pooja, whose name has been changed to protect her privacy, lives in Azamgarh’s Atraulia block and has two sons, aged seven and 12 years. “I was stuck taking care of two children,” she said. But she managed to study further and finished her Bachelors in Education while her second son was a baby. Now, after working all day, she studies at night for government competitive exams for teacher jobs.

When she found that she was pregnant in December 2023, she was shocked. She always tracks her periods, and uses condoms. This put a break on her career plans.

Continued: https://www.indiaspend.com/gendercheck/why-indian-women-struggle-to-get-even-a-legal-abortion-939548

‘Missing’ girls: selective abortion in Albania fuels gender gap

Feb 6, 2024

Tirana (AFP) – When Lina discovered she was pregnant with another girl, she decided to terminate the pregnancy, after her husband grew increasingly violent over the prospect of having a fourth daughter instead of a boy.

The decision was one that has become relatively common in her native Albania and across the Balkans, where a dominant patriarchal culture has pushed many families to pin their hopes on a son.

Continued: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240206-missing-girls-selective-abortion-in-albania-fuels-gender-gap

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

Banning sex-selective abortion has unintended effects on the health and education of children in India

Anisha Sharma, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics Ashoka University
27 Oct 2023

In response to alarming imbalances in its child sex ratio, in 1994 India passed an act prohibiting prenatal diagnostic methods for sex-determination and sex-selective abortions. This column explores the unintended impact on human capital attainment. It finds that the ban led to an increase in female births but also worsened health and educational outcomes for children who were born into intensively treated families. It also identifies a widening gender gap in human capital attainment after the ban. Key underlying mechanisms include increased fertility in families where girls are born, to achieve a desired number of sons, as well as increased discrimination against unwanted daughters.

Continued: https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/banning-sex-selective-abortion-has-unintended-effects-health-and-education-children

27.10.2023

Commentary

Anisha Sharma

discrimination against women

sex selection abortion

sex-selective abortion

India – Abortion racket busted in Krishnagiri

They found over five prenatal mothers from Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri and Tirupattur waiting in a residence to determine the sex of their fetus.

14th October 2023
By Express News Service

KRISHNAGIRI: A team of health officials from Krishnagiri and Tirupattur busted an illegal sex determination and abortion racket on Friday. Deputy Director of Health Services, K Ramesh Kumar said, “Last week Collector KM Sarayu received information that a woman underwent illegal abortion in a clinic run by a quack near Kaveripattinam.

Following this a team led by the Health, Police and Revenue officials investigated the matter.” “The team learned that Gayathri of Narimedu, who already has two girl children, through a broker, met with a scan technician last Thursday and learned that her third baby would also be a girl. The next day she went to a quack doctor Umarani from Kosamedu village near Kaveripattinam and underwent abortion. She escaped before we could arrest her.”

Continued: https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/tamil-nadu/2023/oct/14/abortion-racket-busted-in-krishnagiri-2623679.html

14.10.2023