Abbott seeks sex selection ban (Australia)

TONY JONES: Several private IVF clinics in New South Wales are charging couples $12,000 to allow them to select the sex of their child.

The clinics call it "family balancing".

Couples are allowed to choose a boy or a girl for a social rather than medical reason.

Sex selection of embryos is banned in every state in Australia, apart from New South Wales, and is banned in Europe, unless there is a compelling medical reason to do so.

And now the Federal Health Minister, Tony Abbott, has weighed in, calling on New South Wales to ban sex selection for social reasons.

Suzanne Smith reports.

SUZANNE SMITH: Since 1997, 160 couples from across Australia and the world have come to this private clinic, Sydney IVF, to choose the sex of their child.

KYLIE DE BOER, EMBRYOLOGIST, SYDNEY IVF: Couples mostly access sex selection for reasons of family balancing, which means they feel that by having a sibling of a different sex to the existing siblings would be more beneficial to the family they already have and to the sibling they are...