India bans adverts promoting 'gender-abortion'

Published: September 21st, 2016

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- Abortion

Google, Microsoft and Yahoo will block online advertisements promoting 'gender-abortion' in India, following an order by the country's top court.

India's Health Ministry told the Supreme Court, on Monday, that the three companies had agreed to block 22 key-words related to pre-natal gender testing.

The court had earlier told the trio of companies to abide by India's laws or "cease operations" in the country.

'Social evil'

In July, Justice Dipak Misra told the companies that the advertisements for 'gender-abortion' had become a "social evil".

"You have to abide by the law. You can't say that you are not technically equipped. If you say you are, 'get out of the market,'" he added.

The companies had complained that banning the key-words would be "technically unfeasible", and complained that sweeping bans on offending key-words would also block content which doesn't promote 'gender-abortion', such as research reports and news articles.

The petition to block the advertisements was brought by Dr Sabu George, described by the BBC in 2015 as "India's leading activist against female foeticide."

'Gender-abortion' in India

In 1961, there were 976 girls for every 1,000 boys under the age of seven. That figure has now dropped to 914, according to the latest census figures released in 2011.

A study produced by a pro-life research group, earlier this year, revealed that 'gender-abortion' is occurring globally, including in the UK.

The Charlotte Lozier Institute found that for Indian-born mothers, based in Canada, who had two daughters already, their third child was a boy 66% of the time.

The figures were compared with abortion records. If an Indian-born mother with two daughters had also had one or more abortions, the odds were 77% that the third child was a male, suggesting that 'gender-abortion' was taking place.

India outlawed services offering 'gender-abortion' in 1994.

But, a 2015 UN report has found that the legislation "has had little effect" on the country's male-female ratio. It also noted that that boys tend to receive better healthcare and education.

Gender-abortion in the UK

In the UK, two doctors were caught agreeing to 'gender-abortions' in 2012.

The undercover investigation by The Telegraph filmed the two doctors offering women abortions solely because the child was a girl.

Christian Legal Centre client Aisling Hubert, aged 23, has been campaigning to bring the two doctors to justice, but despite video evidence, the Crown Prosecution Service dropped the case, saying it was "not in the public interest" to prosecute.

Aisling Hubert, who lives in East Sussex, has been ordered to pay a total of £36,000 to two doctors who were filmed by a national newspaper offering abortion on the basis of the baby's gender.

A further £11,000 of costs, awarded against Aisling following an attempt to challenge the CPS' derailment of her private prosecution, brings the total bill for her quest for justice to £47,000.

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India bans adverts promoting 'gender-abortion'

'Social evil'

'Gender-abortion' in India

Gender-abortion in the UK