Aggregated News
It is not just a problem confined to China and India: more female fetuses are being aborted in Europe than previously thought, new statistics show - especially in the Balkans.
In Albania, 112 boys are born for every 100 girls. In Kosovo and Montenegro the figures stand at 110 and 109 boys per 100 girls respectively, according to a recent sturdy by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Analysts point to the persistence of archaic family models as the likely cause. Boys are often considered the family's heir, who are expected to carry on its name and traditions, while women leave the family when they marry.
Franziska Brantner, Green party representative at the European Parliament in Brussels, thinks that the development is a result of a combination of different factors. "Poverty and consequent lack of birth control, as well as strong discrimination against women," Brantner, who is a member of the European Parliament's women's rights committee, said. In Albania, she added, access to birth control is roughly at the level of a developing country.
Fatal consequences of lack of women...
In Albania, 112 boys are born for every 100 girls. In Kosovo and Montenegro the figures stand at 110 and 109 boys per 100 girls respectively, according to a recent sturdy by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Analysts point to the persistence of archaic family models as the likely cause. Boys are often considered the family's heir, who are expected to carry on its name and traditions, while women leave the family when they marry.
Franziska Brantner, Green party representative at the European Parliament in Brussels, thinks that the development is a result of a combination of different factors. "Poverty and consequent lack of birth control, as well as strong discrimination against women," Brantner, who is a member of the European Parliament's women's rights committee, said. In Albania, she added, access to birth control is roughly at the level of a developing country.
Fatal consequences of lack of women...