UK report says Indian-origin parents may be aborting female foetuses

TOI Correspondent from London: A UK government analysis has found a sizeable imbalance in birth sex ratios among Indian-origin families, raising concerns that some parents may be aborting female foetuses because they prefer sons. The office for health improvement and disparities analysed birth data from 2017 to 2021 and detected one statistically significant anomaly: among children of Indian ethnicity, where the birth order was three or more, the sex ratio was 113 males per 100 females, far above the accepted upper limit of 107. The figure was based on 15,401 births. Across the UK, there were 3.6 million births over the same period with an overall ratio of 105.4 males per 100 females, well within the normal global range of 102 to 106. “This may indicate that sex selective abortions