Editing Sex-selective abortion (section)

== Reasons for sex-selective abortion ==
According to the 2012 report of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities on sex imbalances at birth, there are three preconditions for sex-selective abortion.<ref name="UNFPA">United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA). Sex imbalances at birth: current trends, consequences and policy implications. United Nations: Bangkok, Thailand; 2012.</ref> First, the practice should be feasible with the availability of abortion methods and prenatal sex-screening technologies (e.g., [[obstetric ultrasonography]], [[cell-free fetal DNA]], [[amniocentesis]]).<ref name="UNFPA" /><ref name="Hohmann_2014">{{cite journal | vauthors = Hohmann SA, Lefèvre CA, Garenne ML | title = A framework for analyzing sex-selective abortion: the example of changing sex ratios in Southern Caucasus | language = English | journal = International Journal of Women's Health | volume = 6 | pages = 889–897 | date = October 20, 2014 | pmid = 25349481 | pmc = 4208631 | doi = 10.2147/IJWH.S66333 | doi-access = free }}</ref> Second, changing the sex composition of children should be advantageous to the parents and the family. A variety of socioeconomic factors can account for this sex preference such as inherence rules, patronymic transmission, dowry systems, social preference of family composition.<ref name="UNFPA" /><ref name="Hohmann_2014" /> Third, sex-selective abortion should be necessary because of low or decreasing fertility. Given the existence of the social benefits associated with sons, the need for having sons while maintaining a limited number of children is intensified by low fertility.<ref name="UNFPA" /><ref name = "Goodkind_2015" /> Low fertility can be a result of social norms of family size, rising marginal costs of an additional child, or birth control policies.

Some demographers question whether sex-selective abortion or infanticide claims are accurate, because underreporting of female births may also explain high sex ratios.<ref>{{cite journal | doi=10.2307/1972351 | title=The missing girls of China: a new demographic account | vauthors = Johansson S, Nygren O | jstor=1972351 | year=1991 | volume=17 | issue=1 | journal = Population and Development Review | pages=35–51}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Merli MG, Raftery AE | title = Are births underreported in rural China? Manipulation of statistical records in response to China's population policies | journal = Demography | volume = 37 | issue = 1 | pages = 109–126 | date = February 2000 | pmid = 10748993 | doi = 10.2307/2648100 | s2cid = 41085573 | doi-access = free | jstor = 2648100 }}</ref> Natural reasons may also explain some of the abnormal sex ratios.<ref name="James_2008" /><ref name=rjhmam /> In contrast to these possible causes of abnormal sex ratio, Klasen and Wink suggest India and China's high sex ratios are primarily the result of sex-selective abortion.<ref name= "Klausen_2003" />

=== Socioeconomic reasons for son preference and daughter aversion ===

==== Cultural preference ====
[[File:Burying Babies in China (p.40, March 1865, XXII).jpg|thumb|200px|Burying Babies in China (p.40, March 1865, XXII). There is a long tradition of [[female infanticide in China]].<ref name=Offering1865>{{cite journal|title=Burying Babies in China|journal=Wesleyan Juvenile Offering|date=March 1865|volume=XXII|pages=40|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1VwEAAAAQAAJ|access-date=December 1, 2015|archive-date=April 11, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240411212316/https://books.google.com/books?id=1VwEAAAAQAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>]]
[[File:Infanticide-ganges.jpg|thumb|200px|Infanticide committed by throwing an infant into the [[Ganges river]]]]
The reason for intensifying sex-selection abortion in China and India can be seen through history and cultural background. Generally, before the [[information era]], male babies were preferred because they provided manual labor and continuation of the family [[Lineage (anthropology)|lineage]]. Labor is still important in developing nations as China and India, but when it comes to family lineage, it is of great importance.

The selective abortion of female fetuses is most common in areas where cultural norms value male children over female children for a variety of social and economic reasons.<ref name="Goodkind_1999" /> A son is often preferred as an "asset" since he can earn and support the family; a daughter is a "liability" since she will be married off to another family, and so will not contribute financially to her parents. Sex selective female abortion is a continuation, in a different form, of a practice of [[female infanticide]] or withholding of postnatal health care for girls in certain households.<ref name="Gupta_2005">{{cite journal | vauthors = Gupta MD | title = Explaining Asia's "missing women": a new look at the data. | journal = Population and Development Review | date = September 2005 | volume = 31 | issue = 3 | pages = 529–535 | doi = 10.1111/j.1728-4457.2005.00082.x }}</ref> Furthermore, in some cultures sons are expected to take care of their parents in their old age.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Mahalingam R | title = Culture, ecology, and beliefs about gender in son preference caste groups | doi = 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2007.01.004 | journal = Evolution and Human Behavior | volume = 28 | issue = 5 | pages = 319–329 | year = 2007 | bibcode = 2007EHumB..28..319M }}</ref> These factors are complicated by the effect of diseases on child sex ratio, where communicable and noncommunicable diseases affect males and females differently.<ref name="Gupta_2005" /> In parts of India and Pakistan, there are social norms such as [[purdah]], which stipulate that female seclusion and confinement to the home is necessary. Such practices are prevalent among some Muslim and Hindu communities in South Asia. When females interact with men, or are believed to do so, the "[[family honor]]" is tarnished.

Historically, in many South Asian populations, women were allocated a very low status, evidenced through practices such as [[Sati (practice)|sati]], an ancient funeral custom where a [[widow]] immolated herself on her husband's [[pyre]] or committed [[suicide]] in another fashion shortly after her husband's death.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1017/S1060150300004678 |jstor=25058378 |title=The Sati, the Bride, and the Widow: Sacrificial Woman in the Nineteenth Century |journal=Victorian Literature and Culture |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=141–158 |year=1997 | vauthors = Gilmartin S |s2cid=162954709 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Sharma A |title=Sati: historical and phenomenological essays |date=1988 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |location=Delhi |isbn=978-8120804647 |edition=1st | pages = 19–21 }}</ref><ref name=julialeslie>On attested Rajput practice of sati during wars, see, for example {{cite book| vauthors = Leslie J |chapter=Suttee or Sati: Victim or Victor?|page=46|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vPdYkFguJ8IC&pg=PA46 | veditors = Arnold D, Robb PG |title=Institutions and Ideologies: A SOAS South Asia Reader|year=1993 |publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=978-0-7007-0284-8|volume=10}}</ref> Such societies, in placing almost no value on females, encouraged parents to commit [[infanticide]] of girls or to abandon them. The modern practice of sex-selective abortion is therefore a continuation of other historical practices. During the 19th century, in the Northwest [[British raj|British India]], one-fourth of the population preserved only half the daughters, while other 3/4th of the population had balanced sex ratio. There were 118 males per 100 females. This is comparable to the contemporary sex ratio in the area, now divided between India and Pakistan.<ref>{{cite book|title = Child Survival: Anthropological Perspectives on the Treatment and Maltreatment of Children| vauthors = Hughes NS |publisher = Springer|isbn = 978-1-55608-028-9|year = 1987|page = 99}}</ref>

[[Chinese culture]] is deeply patriarchal. Pre-modern Chinese society was predominantly patriarchal and patrilineal from at least the 11th century BC onwards.<ref>{{cite journal | title=周代男女角色定位及其对现代社会的影响 | trans-title=Role orientation of men and women in the Zhou Dynasty and their effects on modern society | vauthors = Wu X | pages=86–92 | language=zh | journal=Chang'An Daxue Xuebao (Shehui Kexue Ban) | date=2009 | volume=11 | issue=3 }}</ref> There has long been a son preference in China, leading to high rates of female infanticide, as well as a strong tradition of restricting the [[freedom of movement]] of women, particularly upper-class women, manifested through the practice of [[foot binding]]. Although the legal and social standing of women have greatly improved in the 20th century, son preference remains still strong, and the situation was aggravated by the [[one child policy]].

Interpretations of [[Confucianism]] have been argued to contribute to the low status of women. The gender roles prescribed in the [[Three Obediences and Four Virtues]] became a cornerstone of the family, and thus, societal stability. Starting from the Han period, Confucians began to teach that a virtuous woman was supposed to follow the males in her family: the father before her marriage, the husband after she marries, and her sons in widowhood. In the later dynasties, more emphasis was placed on the virtue of chastity. The Song dynasty Confucian [[Cheng Yi (philosopher)|Cheng Yi]] stated that: "To starve to death is a small matter, but to lose one's chastity is a great matter."<ref name="ebrey">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GDPskRXfl5cC&pg=PA10 |title=Women and the Family in Chinese History |author=Patricia Buckley Ebrey |pages=10–12 |publisher=Routledge |date=September 19, 2002 |isbn=978-0-415-28822-4 |access-date=December 18, 2017 |archive-date=April 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240411212314/https://books.google.com/books?id=GDPskRXfl5cC&pg=PA10#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> The "cult of chastity" accordingly, condemned many widows to poverty and loneliness by placing a [[social stigma]] on remarriage.<ref name=Adler>{{cite web | vauthors = Adler JA | title = Daughter/Wife/Mother or Sage/Immortal/Bodhisattva? Women in the Teaching of Chinese Religions | work = ASIANetwork Exchange, vol. XIV, no. 2 | date = Winter 2006 | url = http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Writings/Women.htm | access-date = May 18, 2011 | archive-date = March 20, 2006 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060320105840/http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Writings/Women.htm | url-status = live }}</ref>

In modern East Asia, a large part of the pattern of preferences leading to this practice can be condensed simply as a desire to have a male heir. Monica Das Gupta (2005) observes, from 1989 birth data for China, there was no evidence of selective abortion of female fetuses among firstborn children. However, there was a strong preference for a boy if the first born was a girl.<ref name="Gupta_2005" />

==== Dowry ====
[[File:Say no to dowry.jpg|thumb|A social awareness campaign in India against dowries]]
{{Further|Dowry system in India}}
[[File:India - Delhi wedding - 5438.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Wedding gifts for the son of the Imam of Delhi, India, with soldiers and 2000 guests. Large dowries are expected among several populations in South Asia, especially in India and Pakistan.]]
[[Dowry]] is the property that parents of a female transfer at her marriage. Dowry is an ancient practice, that has been common in many cultures around the world, and which is today prevalent especially in South Asia. The custom of dowry is most common in cultures that are strongly [[patrilineal]] and that expect women to reside with or near their husband's family ([[patrilocality]]).<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/dowry| title=Dowry &#124; marriage custom| date=June 30, 2023| access-date=March 1, 2017| archive-date=July 19, 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190719020111/https://www.britannica.com/topic/dowry| url-status=live}}</ref>

Kirti Singh states that dowry is widely considered to be both a cause and a consequence of son preference, and this may lead to girls being unwanted, sex selective abortion, [[female infanticide]] or abuse of female children.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://india.unfpa.org/drive/LawsandSonPreferenceinIndia.pdf |title=Laws and son preference in India: a reality check |website=india.unfpa.org |access-date=January 12, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140313094849/http://india.unfpa.org/drive/LawsandSonPreferenceinIndia.pdf |archive-date=March 13, 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The [[dowry system in India]] is a major part of [[Indian culture]] and refers to the durable goods, cash, and real or movable property that the bride's family gives to the bridegroom, his parents, or his relatives as a condition of the marriage.<ref name="Jethmalani_1995">{{cite book|title = Dowry Deaths and Access to Justice in Kali's Yug: Empowerment, Law and Dowry Deaths| vauthors = Jethmalani R, Dey PK |year = 1995|pages = 36, 38}}</ref> Dowry consists of a payment in cash or some kind of gifts given to the bridegroom's family along with the bride and includes cash, jewelry, electrical appliances, furniture, bedding, crockery, utensils and other household items that help the newlyweds set up their home.<ref name="Diwan_1997">{{cite book|title = Law Relating to Dowry, Dowry Deaths, Bride Burning, Rape, and Related Offences| vauthors = Diwan P, Diwan P |publisher = Universal Law Pub. Co.|year = 1997|location = Delhi|pages = 10}}</ref> Disputes regarding dowry sometimes lead to [[dowry death]]s.

==== Trivers–Willard hypothesis ====
The [[Trivers–Willard hypothesis]] argues that resource availability affects male [[reproductive success]] more than female and that, consequently, parents should prefer males when resources are plentiful and females when resources are scarce. This has been applied to resource differences between individuals in a society and also to resource differences between societies. Empirical evidence is mixed, with higher support in better studies, according to Cronk in a 2007 review. One example: in a 1997 study of a group with a preference for females was [[Romani people|Romani]] in [[Hungary]], a low-status group. They "had a female-biased sex ratio at birth, were more likely to abort a fetus after having had one or more daughters, nursed their daughters longer, and sent their daughters to school for longer."<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Cronk L | title = Boy or girl: gender preferences from a Darwinian point of view | journal = Reproductive Biomedicine Online | volume = 15 | issue = Suppl 2 | pages = 23–32 | date = December 2007 | pmid = 18088517 | doi = 10.1016/S1472-6483(10)60546-9 }}</ref>

=== One-child policy ===
[[File:Danshan Nongguang Village Bulletin board.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The [[one child policy]] in [[China]] has contributed to the imbalanced sex ratios. Image shows a community bulletin board in Nonguang Village, [[Sichuan province]], China, keeping track of the town's female population, listing recent births by name and noting that several thousand yuan of fines for unauthorized births remain unpaid from the previous year.]]
Following the 1949 creation of the People's Republic of China, the issue of population control came into the national spotlight. In the early years of the Republic, leaders believed that telling citizens to reduce their fertility was enough, repealing laws banning [[contraception]] and instead promoting its use. However, the contraceptives were not widely available, both because of lack of supply and because of cultural taboo against discussing sex. Efforts were slowed following the famine of 1959–61 but were resumed shortly thereafter with virtually the same results. Then, in 1964, the Family Planning Office was established to enforce stricter guidelines regarding fertility and it was moderately successful.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Henneberger S | chapter = History of the Policy. | title = China's One-Child Policy | veditors = Henneberger S | date = 2007 | url = http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/fall07/Henneberger/History.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100205073709/http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/fall07/Henneberger/History.html | archive-date = 5 February 2010 }}</ref>

In 1979, the government adopted the [[One-Child Policy]], which limited many families to one child, unless specified by provincial regulations. It was instituted as an attempt to boost the Chinese economy. Under it, families who break rules regarding the number of children they are allowed are given various punishments (primarily monetary), dependent upon the province in which they live.<ref>{{cite report | title = History of the One-Child Policy | work = All Girls Allowed | date = 2013 | url = https://www.allgirlsallowed.org/about-us }}</ref>

As stated above, the sex ratios of a province are largely determined by the type of restriction placed upon the family, pointing to the conclusion that much of the imbalance in sex ratio in China can be attributed to the policy. Research by Junhong (2001) found that many parents are willing to pay to ensure that their child is male (especially if their first child is female), but will not do the same to ensure their child is female.<ref name="Junhong_2001" /> Likely, fear of the harsh monetary punishments of the One-Child Policy make ensuring a son's birth a smart investment. Therefore, son's cultural and economic importance to families and the large expenses associated with multiple children are primary factors leading to China's disparate sex ratio.

In 2013, China announced plans to formally change the One-Child policy, making it less stringent. The National People's Congress has changed the policy to allow couples to have two children, so long as one of the partners is an only child. This change was not sparked by sex ratios, but rather by an aging population that is causing the workforce to become increasingly smaller. It is estimated that this new law will lead to two million more births per year and could cause a baby boom in China. In 2015, China officially relaxed its one child law.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-38714949| title=China birth rate up after one-child change| work=BBC News| date=January 23, 2017| access-date=June 20, 2018| archive-date=August 19, 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190819214358/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-38714949| url-status=live}}</ref> Unfortunately, many of China's social problems are based on overpopulation. So, it is unclear if this new law will actually lead to women being more valued in Chinese society as the number of citizens increases.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/chinas-one-child-policy-to-change-in-the-new-year-9028601.html |title= China's one-child policy to change in the new year|date=December 29, 2013|work = The Independent|language=en|access-date=October 23, 2019|archive-date=October 23, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191023095846/https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/chinas-one-child-policy-to-change-in-the-new-year-9028601.html|url-status=live}}</ref>