Aggregated News
The Chinese government is to make the selective abortion of female foetuses a criminal offence and will ban parents from obtaining ultrasound scans to discover their unborn baby's sex, in an attempt to tackle an unwanted side-effect of its "one-child" policy.
It has set up a commission to draft changes to the criminal law aimed at closing the widening gap between the number of boys and girls in the country. According to the most recent official figures, 119 boys are born in China for every 100 girls, largely because parents abort baby girls to try for a boy.
Zhang Weiqing, China's minister for national population and family planning, who announced the crackdown, said: "The government takes it as an urgent task to correct the gender imbalance of newborns."
The move follows an official investigation of 3,605 selective abortion cases over the past two years and coincides with a drive to counter discrimination against girls - which includes a national programme to exempt girls from school fees and give housing, employment and welfare privileges to one-daughter families.
The Telegraph has learnt...
It has set up a commission to draft changes to the criminal law aimed at closing the widening gap between the number of boys and girls in the country. According to the most recent official figures, 119 boys are born in China for every 100 girls, largely because parents abort baby girls to try for a boy.
Zhang Weiqing, China's minister for national population and family planning, who announced the crackdown, said: "The government takes it as an urgent task to correct the gender imbalance of newborns."
The move follows an official investigation of 3,605 selective abortion cases over the past two years and coincides with a drive to counter discrimination against girls - which includes a national programme to exempt girls from school fees and give housing, employment and welfare privileges to one-daughter families.
The Telegraph has learnt...