The BBC had an article on a report in the Lancet Journal about India which stated that prenatal selection and selective abortion was causing the loss of 500,000 girls a year [1]. We've always known that preference for a male child has meant that girls do not get as good an education, diet or opportunity as their male siblings, however the sheer number of sex-selective abortions is staggering. While India is the country in question, the problem extends to the rest of South Asia as well.
Sepia Mutiny links to the article and there is an excellent discussion via comments [2] on the post. What is interesting is that somewhere the discussion turns to the Pro-Choice argument, and a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy as it seems to clash with the ban on sex-selective abortions. Uma at IndianWriting adds more information to the discussion by linking to some statistics [3] on the sex ratios around the world.
Pickled Politics [4] has an excellent post on the issue.
It’s worth noting that many hospitals in the UK, America and Canada (amongst others) have opted to deny prospective parents information about the sex of their baby. Of course, living in the West it isn’t hard to find someone who will carry out a test. Several of the UK and Canadian centres have specifically mentioned Asian communities as the reason for their decisions to stop screening for sex.
Meanwhile, an active discussion is also ongoing at the LiveJournal Feminist Community on the same issue with emphasis on the Pro-Choice and Pro-Life aspects [5]. As a generous plug, I have a post on this issue as well [6] at Within / Without. There's quite a lot of discussion at the celebrity IntentBlog [7].
What is sad is that education actually increased the abortion rate… Is this linked to more access to ultrasounds? Probably so. The report mentions socio-economic factors, but notes religion didnt make a difference.