China Family Planning Commission Will Continue Enforcing Fines For Sex-Selective Abortions, Minister Says

The National Commission for Population and Family Planning of China will continue to punish clinics and individuals who are involved in sex-selective abortions for nonmedical reasons, even though the country's legislature recently decided against criminalizing the practice, Zhang Weiqing, the minister who oversees the commission, said recently, Xinhua/People's Daily reports (Xinhua/People's Daily, 8/2). Sex-selective abortion is banned in China, but physicians who help people determine a fetus' sex for nonmedical reasons face only administrative penalties. The Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress, the country's legislature, in June voted to remove a provision from an amendment to the country's criminal law that would have criminalized gender identification of embryos and fetuses for nonmedical reasons. Lawmakers in March 2005 made the proposal in order to prevent sex-selective abortions and ease the resulting gender imbalance in the country (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 6/27). "The decision not to criminalize sex-selection abortion does not mean any policy relaxation," an unnamed official at the family planning commission said (Xinhua/People's Daily, 8/2). A person found guilty of performing an illegal gender identification of a fetus faces a minimum fine of about $1,255, according to AP/CNN International (AP/CNN International, 8/2). One hundred and nineteen boys are born for every 100 girls born in the country, and the disparity is even greater in some rural areas, according to the latest government statistics. The worldwide ratio is about 105 boys to 100 girls (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 6/27). According to BBC News, some population experts are wary of the government's statistics, saying some female births might not be reported (BBC News, 8/2).

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