Indian families in the UK are missing hundreds of baby girls

An analysis by the United Kingdom (UK) Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has revealed a “statistically significant imbalance” in boy-to-girl birth ratios among children of Indian ethnicity who were born from 2017 to 2021, igniting suspicions that some parents may be aborting preborn baby girls due to their preference for males. 

Key Takeaways:

• New data from DHSC found an imbalance in the birth ratio of boys and girls among children born to Indian parents in the UK.

• The information raises suspicion that sex-selective abortions may be taking place among families from India who are residing in the UK.

The Details:

The imbalance “may indicate that sex-selective abortions are taking place,” the report said. “If so, it is estimated that approximately 400 sex-selective abortions may have taken place to female foetuses over the five-year period from 2017 to 2021.”

During this five-year period, a total of 3.6 million births were officially registered in the UK, with a birth ratio of 105.4 boys for every 100 girls — a figure beneath the generally accepted upper threshold of 107. When the ratio exceeds that level, experts consider it strong evidence of sex selection, a practice where parents may use different means to get a child of their desired sex. 

However, among Indian children born to mothers with two or more previous children, the birth ratio reached 113 boys for every 100 girls, which statisticians portrayed as “significantly higher” than the cutoff of 107.

An earlier dataset covering 2016 to 2020 displayed no such evidence, but the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has not published updated data since the 2017–2021 findings, despite previously promising to do so.

Sex-Selective Abortion: Part 2 - Undercover in NYC

Zoom In:

In response to the findings, a DHSC spokesman declared:

This Government’s position is unequivocal: sex-selective abortion is illegal in England and Wales and will not be tolerated. Sex is not a lawful ground for termination of pregnancy, and it is a criminal offence for any practitioner to carry out an abortion for that reason alone.

Anyone with evidence that this illegal practice is occurring must report it to the police immediately. We continue to work closely with providers to ensure that abortions are only performed in accordance with the strict legal grounds set out in the Abortion Act.

Reaffirming its pledge to release updated figures covering the years 2018 to 2023, the DHSC stated that specific publication dates will be revealed “in due course.”

Academic studies have also found some proof of sex-selection practices among Indian-born mothers, involving techniques such as sperm sorting and pre-implantation procedures.

Regular publication of sex ratio data was introduced after Members of Parliament dismissed a proposal to ban sex-selective abortion, alleging that such legislation might limit access to safe abortion services and promote ethnic profiling.

In the UK, Indian-born mothers displayed peaks of under 5% sex selection from 1990-2005, according to an Economic and Social Research Council study. Techniques like prenatal sex determination via ultrasound followed by abortion, or IVF with pre-implantation screening, remain prevalent despite being illegal.

Additionally, an article by GRIPT reported the following:

More evidence of sex selection among Indian-born mothers was also supported by a study, backed by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and led by Prof Sylvie Dubuc, of Strasbourg University. It concluded that sex selection remained confined to fewer than five per cent of Indian-born mothers at the peak period of 1990 to 2005 and reduced in 2006 to 2018.

The issue of sex selective abortions in the UK has been flagged for some time. A quick internet search will produce articles on the topic dating from a decade ago and more. In the first week of the New Year, the issue is back in the headlines, after BPAS – Britain’s biggest abortion provider – more or less said in no uncertain terms: ‘We do, actually, tolerate sex selective abortions.’

Elaborating on the problem of sex-selective abortion, the same GRIPT article went on: 

In her book, Unnatural Selection, Beijing-based correspondent Mara Hvistendahl looked at how easy access to prenatal sex selective technology – ultrasound – was allowing for fetal sex identification. In countries where abortion was readily available, she writes that this was resulting in female feticide on a massive scale. Highly skewed sex ratios at birth, Hvistendahl writes, were first reported back in the late 1980s in South Korea, with China soon following. She wrote, fifteen years ago, that the rich urban elite may have been the first to access sex selection, however with the advent of ultrasound technology, it soon became widely available even to the poor. South Korea, China, India and Taiwan were the first countries to be affected, but the problem would spread further afield to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia.

In context, the entrenched preference for sons over daughters, stemming from certain cultural traditions from parts of South Asia, propels the tragedy of sex-selective abortions. Many families often regard boys as carriers of lineage, financial providers, and caregivers in old age, while daughters are regarded as economic liabilities owing to dowry customs and marriage expectations. Consequently, this mindset has given rise to more than 160 million "missing" females in Asia.

While current British law criminalizes abortions based merely on fetal sex, categorizing it as a criminal offense as per the Abortion Act 1967, prosecutions of trespassers remain rare. The DHSC report singled out higher abortion rates among Indian-ethnicity women with two prior births — 13,843 procedures from 2017-2021 — raising questions about unreported sex selection. 

Such figures humanize the abortion debate, showcasing not merely abstract notions of the inherent dignity of every human life, but targeted killings of baby girls solely for being female.

The Bottom Line:

Cultural practices and beliefs can never justify ending innocent lives.​ The DHSC findings call for immediate reforms to address policy gaps and affirm life's sanctity from conception. By forbidding sex-selective abortions, implementing harsher penalties to medical providers for facilitating sex-selective abortions, as well as banning sex-based embryo selection, British authorities can take concrete steps towards establishing a more gender-balanced society as well as safeguarding vulnerable human lives.