NEW DELHI – Indian women would be required to register their pregnancies and seek government permission for abortions under a proposal intended to curb abortions of female fetuses in the country, where boys are traditionally preferred.
“This will help to check both feticide and infant mortality,” said Renuka Chowdhury, India’s women and child development minister. “With this, mysterious abortions will become difficult.”
Last year, a study by The Lancet, a British medical journal, reported that up to 500,000 female fetuses are aborted each year in India.
A Times of India editorial on Saturday entitled “Abort the silly proposal” derided it as “ridiculous,” saying fetal gender screening is already a criminal offense. Boys are preferred because they do not require the dowry payments that bankrupt many poor families.
“In the name of protecting the girl child, the state must not fall into the trap of disempowering women,” the editorial said.
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