I shudder to think when this will happen in India...

(Again from today's TOI)

China aborts crime against foetus

Beijing: China’s legislature has scrapped an amendment to the criminal law that would ban abortions based on the sex of the foetus, state media reported on Sunday, despite a growing population imbalance between males and females. Members of the national legislature’s standing committee were divided over criminalising sex-selective abortions and removed the provision from a draft amendment on Saturday, the China Youth Daily said.
“Many controversies remain,’’ the Xinhua News Agency said.
The original amendment, last discussed by the National People’s Congress committee in April, called for fines and prison terms of up to three years for aborting a foetus because of the sex for non-medical reasons, the reports said.
A three-decade-old policy limiting most couples to one child has made abortion a widely used method for controlling family size. As a result, and due to a traditional preferences for sons, China faces a growing population imbalance, with many more boys than girls.
Xinhua said there are now 119 boys born for every 100 girls, a larger gap than the government’s previously published figure of 117 to 100. Globally, the average ratio is about 105 boys to 100 girls.
Chinese law does not currently outlaw abortions to select a child’s gender. A family planning regulation prohibits the practice except for medical reasons, but the regulation does not spell out punishments.
Family planning experts and some legislators have argued that the lack of clear criminal penalties has encouraged the use of abortions by families who want a son.
Over the past two years, in the northern province of Hebei next to Beijing, authorities found 848 violations of the rules and closed down 201 clinics that had performed unauthorised sex-selection abortions, state media have reported.
Meanwhile, lawyers defending a blind rural activist detained after he exposed forced abortions and sterilisations have been thwarted in their efforts to sue over veiled threats to his life, a member of the defence team said.
Li Jinsong, who was briefly detained himself and received a threatening phone call after visiting his client in custody last week in eastern Shandong province, said on Sunday a policeman had warned the 34-year-old human rights activist, Chen Guangcheng, that prison was a dangerous place.
Chen has been under house arrest or in detention since September.
A 30-year-old policy limiting most couples to one child has made abortion a widely-used method for controlling family size in China.
AGENCIES