Indian Couple Arrested For Allegedly Aborting Female Fetuses In Punjab, India

An Indian couple has been arrested for allegedly aborting female fetuses, a practice that is illegal in India, Jagveer Singh, the investigating officer in the case, said Thursday, the AP/Christian Post reports (AP/Christian Post, 8/10). About 35 decomposed fetuses on Wednesday were recovered from a well near a hospital in Punjab, India, where female fetuses often are aborted, Varinder Singh Mohi, a senior government physician, said (Reuters Health, 8/10). Jagveer said it was hard to count the exact number of fetuses because most of them already had decomposed significantly. He added that the remains are being sent to a lab to be tested (AP/Christian Post, 8/10). In addition, police confiscated from the couple surgical instruments; medicines; and other materials used for abortions, which the couple was not authorized to provide, according to the Times of India (Singh Ashk, Times of India, 8/10). According to Singh, the couple has helped to deliver many infants but also has worked with pregnant women to determine their fetus' sex, which is illegal in India (AP/Christian Post, 8/10). India in 1994 approved the Prenatal Determination Act, which bans the use of technologies such as ultrasounds and sonograms for the purpose of sex-selective abortion. The law also bans advertisements for prenatal sex determination, as well as the practice of preconception sex selection law (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 5/23). Jagveer on Thursday said the man, Pritam Singh, "under the guise of [running] a maternity clinic, ... carried out illegal abortions and killed female fetuses" and "dump[ed] the fetuses in a well behind the clinic" (AP/Christian Post, 8/10). Singh Mohi said, "A nurse has made a statement saying she has been working at the hospital for one-and-a-half months, and during this period 12 or 13 female fetuses have been destroyed." According to hospital employees, the clinic charged married women seeking abortions between about $174.98 and $322.50 per procedure (Reuters Health, 8/10). If convicted the couple faces between three and 10 years in prison (AP/Christian Post, 8/10).

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