Quantcast
Sponsors
Special Reports
Doctor jailed for offering sex-selection abortion
Apr 12, 2006

INDIA (BP)–An Indian doctor finally has been sentenced to jail for offering to perform a sex-selection abortion.

Anil Sabhani, a doctor in the northern Indian state of Haryana, and an assistant, Kartar Singh, were sentenced to two years in jail for revealing the sex of an unborn child and agreeing to abort her, according to the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC). Although India’s government had enacted a law against sex-selection abortions 12 years ago, Sabhani and Singh were the first medical professionals to be sent to jail.

They were caught in a sting operation in which Sabhani was recorded both on audio and video telling a woman that her unborn baby was “a female fetus, and it would be taken care of,” BBC News reported.

Vinay Agarwal, president of the Indian Medical Association, called the sentences “historical.”

“The medical profession is doing all it can, though we have to address this as a social evil,” Agarwal said, according to BBC News. “People should be proud to have a girl child.”

Because of the cultural preference for boys, the ratio in India of female to male births has declined markedly, especially in the wealthier, northern states of Punjab and Haryana.

The most recent census shows Punjab has 793 girls to every 1,000 boys, according to The Times, a London newspaper. Haryana’s rate is 861 girls for every 1,000 boys, BBC News reported. The nationwide average is 927 females to 1,000 males, according to BBC News.

It has been estimated 10 million unborn girls may have been aborted in the last 20 years in India, BBC News reported.

Bookmark and Share

You must be login before you can leave a comment. Click here to Register if you are a new user.

Login ID:
Password: Forgot password?