Nepal gender gap widens as sex-selective abortions continue to flourish

Experts are calling for authorities to take action as illegal sex-selective abortions continue to take place, widening the gender gap in Nepal.

Key Takeaways:

• Abortion was made a constitutional "right" in Nepal in 2009, and given further protection in 2018. By 2021, abortion had been fully decriminalized.

• Though abortion is legal, sex-selective abortions technically are not, though the law against it is rarely enforced.

• The cultural preference for sons has led to widespread abortions of preborn girls.

• As the gender gap widens, experts are calling for authorities to take action.

The Details:

The Kathmandu Post reported that the Nepali government is asking health care agencies, abortion facilities, and the "general public" to stop committing sex-selective abortions, as the gender gap in Nepal continues to widen. Yet experts are warning that the government needs to do more to put a stop to these illegal abortion procedures.

“We are headed towards disaster. If we fail to check sex-selective abortions, this trend could lead to long-term social and demographic consequences,” Dr. Uddhab Puri, associate professor at the Tribhuvan University, who has carried out research on the birth rate in Nepal, said. “No agency is working to prevent sex selective abortions and as per the law our law enforcement agencies do not do anything unless complaints are lodged or accidents take place."

While these abortions are technically illegal, the law banning them is rarely enforced, leading them to continue to flourish across the country. Already, this is having major repercussions; in 2024, 16.71% fewer girls were born than boys. The disparity is even higher in rural areas, and the gender gap has been confirmed in government-sponsored studies.

Under the criminal code, sex-selective abortions can cost parents and abortionists one to five years in prison, along with fines between Rs10,000 and Rs50,000. Yet no one has ever been sentenced or fined for committing them.

In metropolitan cities, there is easy access to ultrasounds, and for those living in rural areas, families are typically able to travel to nearby India to get the screening. Over 105,000 women are known to have undergone abortions in Nepal over the last fiscal year, though it is assumed many more took place without being part of the government record; abortion drugs, for example, are available over-the-counter, making it near-impossible to reliably trace.

Zoom In:

Abortion is largely acceptable in Nepal, due to over 20 years of efforts to both legalize and decriminalize it. Abortion was first legalized there in 2002, on demand up to 12 weeks for any reason. If a woman was a victim of rape or incest, she could undergo an abortion through 18 weeks, and if the preborn child was diagnosed with any disability or anomaly, there were no limits whatsoever.

Lakshmi v. Nepal made abortion a constitutional right in 2009, and in 2018, the Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Health Rights (SMRHR) Act was passed to further protect Nepalese women’s supposed “right” to abortion.

Despite this, abortion-related provisions still remained in the country’s criminal law; in 2021, under pressure from the United Nations, it was fully decriminalized.

Gendercide also became a widespread problem in 2002, following both the legalization of abortion and the availability of ultrasound technology. And it only got worse over the years; according to the British Medical Journal (BMJ), between 2002 and 2011, the number of girls aborted who otherwise would have been born was one in 50. Between the years 2010 and 2011, that number had risen to one in 38. In certain areas, the numbers were even worse; in Arghakhanchi, one in six girls are missing, while in the Kathmandu Valley, there are 115 boys born for every 100 girls.

But those weren't the only disturbing findings. BMJ researchers also discovered that wealthier and more educated women were more likely to undergo sex-selective abortions. The team also found that in districts with high numbers of sex-selective abortions, girls were disproportionately more likely to die before the age of five than boys — indicating that girls are possibly being killed both before and after birth.

Sex-Selective Abortion: Part 2 - Undercover in NYC

The Bottom Line:

Despite the widespread issues gendercide is known to cause, the practice persists.

The abortion industry is all-too-willing to look the other way and commit these discriminatory abortions, killing preborn children simply because they are the "wrong" gender.