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China vows to stay tough on selective abortions
Beijing, Aug 2, 2006 China will keep a tough policy on abortion of baby girls because of their sex and has prosecuted thousands of cases despite a failure to make the practice an outright crime, state media said Wednesday. "The decision to not criminalize sex-selection abortion does not mean any policy relaxation," a population and family planning official told the China Daily. Over the past two years the government had prosecuted 3,000 cases of sex-selective abortions, the paper said, without specifying the punishments or spelling out whether parents, doctors or officials were targeted. An amendment to the criminal law would have allowed imprisonment of up to three years for people involved in abortions based on the sex of the fetus, but it failed to get enough support from lawmakers, state media said in June. Some lawmakers had pushed for the measure to rectify the significant gender imbalance in China's population, a result of the one-child policy that was introduced nearly three decades ago. However, other experts argued it would be inappropriate to criminalize such practices because pregnant women "should enjoy the right to know the sex of the fetus," the earlier report said. In China, where sons are traditionally preferred, many prospective parents have elected for an abortion if tests have shown a female fetus. As a result there are 119 boys born for every 100 girls in China, much higher than a global ratio of 103 to 107 boys for 100 girls, and the trend is expected to continue over the next 20 years, a recent government study said. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links China News from SinoDaily.com
China's steel industry urges tighter controls on foreign investment
Beijing, Aug 2, 2006 China's steel industry wants tighter controls on foreign investment, state media said Wednesday, amid growing concerns a more protectionist mood may be taking hold in Asia's second-largest economy. |
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