The scientists counted 23 million unborn girls  –  victims of selective abortions

In total, 23 million girls did not come to the world just because the parents, knowing the fetus, interrupted normal, healthy pregnancy without any problems. Nikolay Voronin, a BBC correspondent in science, touched upon the problem of gender-based abortion.

To illustrate the figure, 23 million are half the population of Spain or the entire Australian population. It is twice as high as the number of people living in Belgium or Cuba, four times the population of Denmark or Finland.

Such data was obtained as a result of a large-scale research, the results of which were published last week in the US National Academy of Sciences journal. Scientists have analyzed fertility data throughout the world over the last few decades and discovered that gender-based changes were recorded in several countries at once. More boys were born than girls.

This trend was most striking in twelve countries, including three post-Soviet countries: Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. The lion’s share of intermittent pregnancies reaches densely populated countries, such as India and China.

On average, girls/boys ratio is 100/105. From time to time, this natural correlation may slightly deviate from one side to the other, from 1.03 to 1.07, but in general it is unchanged regardless of the country.

However, 40 years ago, when technologies were created and started to be used to determine the sex of the baby during pregnancy, selective abortions were practiced.

Experts say that telling parents about fetal sex early in pregnancy often leads to abortion. That is why in many countries, the law prohibits telling parents about the gender of their baby, especially at the early stage of pregnancy, when it is easier to interrupt it.

India was the first country to have a wave of selective abortions. More and more boys have been born there since 1975, and this tendency still remains.

Already in the early 1980’s, the wave spread to China, Korea, Taiwan, Tunisia, and Montenegro. In all these countries, the sex ratio of newborns has already been recovered, except for China, where the ratio is 100girls/114 boys.

Increase in the number of abortions in the former three post-Soviet countries, Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan, was registered after the collapse of the USSR in 1991-1992, with a sharp decline in birth rates.

And if this correlation has already been settled in Georgia, then in Armenia and Azerbaijan, nowadays, selective abortions are widespread as before. In 2017, there were 112-113 boys born on average with 100 newborn girls.

Returning to South Korea’s successful experience, let’s notice that in order to reduce the number of abortions among expectant women, that country still banned doctors to inform the fetus of the fetus in 1988. At the same time, women have significantly raised the educational level, more women have started to work, breaking the traditional stereotype that only a man can earn money in the family.

All of these factors brought together the result that the gender balance of the newborns returned to the natural state. The World Bank has said South Korea has become the first country in Asia to have that achievement. In 2015, 105.3 boys were born on 100 newborn girls. A number of western countries, such as Canada, have the same index.