MPs have called on the Government to compile statistics on the gender of aborted babies in a Parliamentary debate this week.
It comes after health minister, Earl Howe, revealed that birth statistics in the UK show that abortions on the basis of gender could be taking place in some communities.
Government analysis
The findings - disclosed in response to a Parliamentary question posed by cross-bench peer Lord Alton - were made after Government officials analysed the boy-girl ratios of births between 2007 and 2011.
It was found that women in certain communities were giving birth to an usually higher number of males than females. However, the Department of Health has refused to release information on the nationalities of such women, stating that it was not in the "public interest" to do so.
An undercover investigation by the Daily Telegraph last year uncovered evidence of doctors sanctioning abortions for the sole reason that the parents were unhappy with the gender of their baby, even though sex-selection abortions are illegal in the UK under the 1967 Abortion Act.
Ten Minute Rule Bill
A Ten Minute Rule Bill calling for the Government to monitor the sex of aborted babies has been presented jointly by Conservative MP Fiona Bruce and Labour MP Jim Dobbin, with its aims being supported by more than 50 MPs.
During the debate, Mrs Bruce referred to the large number of sex-selection abortions taking place in India and China where there is a cultural preference for boys over girls, stating that the Government must be willing to challenge such practices in the UK through “open-dialogue” on the issue.
She said: “It is a tragedy that in some countries the words ‘it’s a girl’ are not always a source of joy but of danger; the illegal abortion of baby girls and the resultant imbalance in the number of young men and women in certain parts of these countries is surely something which no one in this country can condone.
Distress
“What should cause real distress is that babies are being aborted because they are the wrong gender.
“The most dangerous place for girl should not be in her mother’s womb.
“After all the endeavours on the part of successive governments to outlaw and end discrimination, the fact that a baby could be aborted just because she is a girl (or, indeed, a boy) remains the most basic form of discrimination, and concerns about it cross communities, cultures and countries.
“We need to be willing to open up a dialogue about this in the UK and to ensure that that dialogue is properly evidence-based – hence the call for the Department of Health to take action.”
A second reading on the Bill will take place on 26th April.
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