By Hilary White
November 7, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Vietnam has joined the ranks of aborting nations that have seen their population trend towards more boys than girls, a UN-sponsored report says. Sex-selective abortion has resulted in many countries where abortion is common, such as India and China, having grave concerns about the their demographic imbalance.
The United Nations Population Fund report shows that Vietnam has been added to the list of countries facing possible demographic implosion as too few girls are allowed to survive to birth.
The report says that the international ratio of boys to girls is about 105 to 100. But in Vietnam the ratio has shifted to 110-100 and is as high as 120-100 in some provinces. The highest provincial ratio was 123 boys to 100 girls.
Since the introduction under Vietnam's communist regime of abortion on demand, and the advent of ultra-sound technology, the country's birth rate has declined and the traditional preference for boys over girls has created the current growing imbalance.
Although not as draconian as China's one-child policy, Vietnam's communist rulers have imposed a two-child limit on families for two decades. The country has officially banned sex-selective abortions and prohibited doctors from informing parents about the sex of their child, but as in India, the prohibition has proved difficult to enforce.
The report identifies the "pressure to adhere to the two-child policy" as a factor in the imbalance.
UNFPA deputy executive director Purnima Mane said in an interview that the "technology" is not to blame. "I don't think we are damning the technology and one shouldn't. But unfortunately the technology is being abused." She warned of a possible increase in trafficking of women and domestic violence as consequences of the gender imbalance.
The report said about 25,000 expected baby girls went "missing" – meaning aborted – in Vietnam last year alone.
The study's author, French demographer Christophe Guilmoto, gave a warning about this demographic trend at the Fourth Asia-Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights in India. He stated the imbalance could lead to a destabilizing of the entire marriage system and lead to violence and social unrest as the demand for wives increases.
Current research indicates that across Asia, the ratio is 2.1 billion men to 1.9 billion women with some Asian countries having between 5 and 20 per cent more men than women.
Dr Guilmoto estimated that even if the current rates of gender selection are addressed, there would still be 33 million more men than women in India and 25 million more in China by 2050.
See the report at
http://www.unfpa.org/gender/case_studies.htm
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
7,000 Unborn Girls Die From Sex-Selection Abortion Daily in India
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/dec/06121401.html
Home Gender Test Will Lead to Sex-Selection Abortion, Experts Warn
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/may/07050702.html
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