Abortion and Infanticide Lead to 32 Million More Young Males Than Females in China

LifeSite News reports: Because of the higher incidence of sex-selection abortions and female infanticides, a new study published in the British Journal of Medicine says that, in 2005, there were 32 million more males than females under the age of 20. “Sex-selective abortion accounts for almost all the excess males,” say the authors, pointing to the cultural preference for boys and the use of ultrasounds to determine the sex of the baby for an abortion when a girl is found. Although choosing to have an abortion on the basis of sex is illegal in China, enforcement is spotty. The study included nearly five million people under the age of 20 and covered every county in China. It found that overall ratios of boys were high everywhere, but were most striking among the younger age group of 1-4 years, and in rural areas, where it peaked at 126 boys for every 100 girls. There, the cultural preference for girls is at its highest. In most other countries, boys slightly outnumber girls at birth, with ratios between 103 and 107 boys per 100 girls. The authors noted the bachelor society that the phenomenon is producing. As a result, China can expect to see “very high and steadily worsening sex ratios in the reproductive age group over the next two decades,” the report concludes, an outcome likely to increase social tensions as millions of men will be unable to find brides. The news comes after a report indicating sex-selection abortions may be decreasing in Shanghai. New figures in Shanghai indicate an improvement — however sleight — in the figures in the large urban city. The gender ratio for newborns among families considered to be permanent residents amounted to 114.8 boys for every 100 girls last year, down from 115.2 in 2007. That is the first time the gender imbalance improved in eight years, according to population control officials. According to the Shanghai Daily newspaper, the ratio for the city’s most stable population was 106.5 boys to 100 girls in 2008, 1.2 points lower than in 2007.