"We conservatively estimate that prenatal sex determination and selective abortion accounts for 0.5 million missing girls yearly," said one of the authors, Prabhat Jha of St. Michael's Hospital at the University of Toronto, Canada, on Monday.
"If this practice has been common for most of the past two decades since access to ultrasound became widespread, then a figure of 10 million missing female births would not be unreasonable."
The "girl deficit" is far more prominent in educated women, the investigators found.
The number of boys born as second children was twice as high among this group than among illiterate mothers.
However, the deficit did not vary by religion.
The study published by the London-based medical journal comes on the heels of a report last October by the
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which warned that infanticide or abortion was driving India towards a gender imbalance with alarming social consequences. Afghanistan, China, Nepal, Pakistan and South Korea face similar problems, the UNFPA said.
One might argue that these girls would be doomed to a life where they are discriminated as second-class citizens. But my response would be that the abortions and infanticides perpetuate the problem--more boys in future generations to imbalance society further.
As Democrats are learning, he who has the mostest people wins. Population, sheer numbers, matter in matters of politics--including changing the status of minorities. The more minorities, through race or gender, snuffed out, the more the majorities grow greater. Literally, minority rights are being squelched before they are heard.
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