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The Council of Europe recommends prohibiting the sex of the unborn child during pregnancy
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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The Council of Europe may recommend that member countries impose restrictions on the provision of information on the future child's field in state maternity homes. The draft resolution, according to The Telegraph, was approved at the end of last week by the Council of Europe's Committee on Equal Opportunities.
According to the authors of the document, the need for proposed restrictions is associated with the growing problem of sexual imbalance among newborns in a number of countries in Eastern Europe. This situation is due to the spread of selective abortions, which are carried out in cases where the parents are not satisfied with the sex of the unborn child. As a rule, we are talking about the traditional in many cultures the preference for boys in front of girls.
Usually, the sex of the unborn child is determined by the ultrasound method, but recently genetic tests have been used to determine the sex of the fetus at earlier stages of pregnancy.
According to the Council of Europe, the most unfavorable situation with selective abortions on the basis of gender is in such countries as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Albania and Georgia. The ratio of the sexes among newborns in these countries is 111-112 boys per 100 girls, then in the human population, there are 100 girls per 105 newborn boys.
In addition to the European countries mentioned, selective sex-based abortions are also common in China and India. Over the past few years, these countries have introduced a number of restrictions on the use of ultrasound in pregnancy, as well as the termination of pregnancy without medical indications.
It is expected that the draft resolution will be considered at the next parliamentary session of the Council of Europe in early October. However, decisions of the Council of Europe are of a recommendatory nature and are not binding for the member countries of the organization.