China plans tougher laws on sex-selective abortions

by Peter Harmsen
Sat Aug 25, 7:18 AM ET



BEIJING (AFP) - Fearing the approach of a ticking "bachelor bomb," China is planning tougher laws against sex-selective abortions that have boosted the number of boys in recent years, state media said Saturday.

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The State Council, or cabinet, is drafting special regulations that specify punishments for parents and doctors who abort foetuses after discovering they are female, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Abortions motivated merely by gender are already illegal in China but existing laws do not specify the punishment for such acts, according to Xinhua, which gave no timetable for the new rules.

The sex ratio among Chinese toddlers is becoming ever more skewed as a direct result of the nation's one-child policy.

This is because couples that cannot give birth to an unlimited number of children are more likely to abort female foetuses in the hope of having a much-wanted son.

"The root cause is traditional thinking that boys are better than girls, especially in poverty-stricken areas," said Song Jiang, a population expert at Beijing's Renmin University. "Those people expect boys to support the family."

In some parts of China, sex-selective abortions have created a situation where there are more than three boys for every two girls, Xinhua said in a separate report.

In a particularly striking example, there are 163.5 boys for every 100 girls in the city of Lianyungang in east China's Jiangsu province, according to Xinhua.

The statistics came from the state-controlled China Family Planning Association, which said in a survey that 99 cities had sex ratios higher than 125 boys to 100 girls.

Previously published figures have showed that the national average in China in 2005 was nearly 119 boys to every 100 girls.

The average global sex ratio at birth is about 105 under "natural" conditions.

It is possible that part of the highly unusual sex ratio in China could reflect the practice of keeping girls secret from the authorities, allowing parents to try again in the hope of gaining a son.

Girls that are not registered will face severe problems in future as they are unlikely to attend school.

However, it is highly likely that a large proportion of the girls are dead, having fallen victim to the widespread use of ultra-sound equipment for determining the sex of unborn embryos.

While abortion is considered the main factor behind the skewed sex ratio, infanticide is believed to be relatively rare in China.

Demographers are increasingly warning of the dangers the trend poses to social stability in China.

The biggest worry is that a huge army of bachelors will result with an estimated 30 million more men than women.

Some analysts argue that the disparity could become a force for social instability.

Under the one-child policy, introduced in about 1980, China's urban dwellers are allowed one child, while rural families can have two if the first is a girl.

Ruthless enforcement has triggered widespread opposition, especially in the countryside where children are valued as additional economic muscle.

Riots have broken out against forced abortions and other measures, such as heavy fines, the destruction of homes and confiscation of property.

However ruling Communist Party officials and the rich often ignore the law themselves or pay the necessary fines.

Despite its unpopularity, the policy has been effective in slowing China's demographic growth.

At 1.3 billion people it already has the world's biggest population but it is expected to be overtaken by India some time this century.