China vows to fight sex-selection abortion

China this week vowed to strengthen enforcement of a law banning sex-selection abortion, as the male-to-female ratio of births continues to widen in the country. China has a strictly enforced one-child policy in most regions, and a traditional preference for boys coupled with ultrasound technology, has led to a huge increase in the abortion of baby girls.

“China is the country with the highest ratio of surplus men, or the highest numbers of sex-selective abortions, so clearly there is something special going on in China that is not going on in other countries,” said Joseph Meaney, Director of International Coordination for Human Life International (HLI).

The male-female ratio at birth in China is about 119 males to 100 females, with the gap as high as 130 males for every 100 females in some provinces. Meaney told Vatican Radio there are many reasons for this preference for males.

“Only male descendants are allowed to do funerary rites in some of the traditional religions in China, the carrying on of the family name - which is very important - which only passes through the son, the idea that the daughter is lost when she gets married,” he said. “All these things exacerbate the problem, but certainly the one child policy has made China a uniquely susceptible country to sex-selection abortion.”

Listen to full interview by Charles Collins with Joseph Meaney: