Study “23 Million Females are Missing Due to Sex-Selective Abortion”

A recent study, reviewed by Stefano Gennarini on the C-Fam website.

NEW YORK, May 3 (C-Fam) Sex-selective abortion has caused the premature death of over 23 million females, according to the first-ever systematic global study of sex ratio imbalance. Demographers have noted the phenomenon of skewed sex ratios for decades. Millions of females are missing because of sex-selective abortion. This has led to increased trafficking in children and women. It has also led to increased rates of suicide, depression, and substance abuse among unmarried men. But the global scale of the phenomenon and how many girls exactly have been aborted has relied on uncertain estimates.

The natural sex ratio around the globe, with few variations due to genetics and geography, is around 1.05, or about 100 women to every 105 men. But the sex ratio at birth in many countries is in some cases dramatically skewed.

It is difficult to estimate the global impact of sex-selective abortion because abortions, and sometimes even births, are not always accurately tracked. The new study devised a statistical model for predicting the total impact of sex-selective abortion in countries that have a skewed sex ratio.

The authors found 23 million baby girls are missing globally as a “direct consequence of sex-selective abortion, driven by the coexistence of son preference, readily available technology of prenatal sex determination, and fertility decline.”

Most of these girls were aborted in mainland China, where 11.9 million girls are missing, and in India, where 10.6 million are missing. But according to the study’s authors the absence of females is also statistically strong in other countries, most of which are in Asia and Eastern Europe.

The authors cite son preference and the availability of prenatal sex diagnosis, combined with the accessibility of sex-selective abortion, as the main drivers of the skewed ratios.