Female Feticide in the US by Immigrant Women from India

A qualitative study by a team from the Univ of California, San Francisco, published last month in the journal of Social Science and Medicine describes the narratives of immigrant women from India in the US who underwent sex-determination tests and subsequent sex-selective abortion.

65 immigrant women from India living in the US and with a history of sex selection participated in the study. Of the 65 women selected for the study, 51 were not aware of the sex of their fetus at the start of the study. The other 14 knew beforehand that they were carrying male fetus (in fact, these 14 had chosen methods to ensure a male fetus). During the study, the other 51 unaware-participants used ultra-sound to determine sex of their fetus. Of these 51 women, 24 women learned that they were carrying a male fetus and chose to continue with their pregnancy. Of the rest 27 women who found out that they were carrying a female fetus, 24 aborted their pregnancy and only 3 women carried their pregnancy to deliver a female child.

[The women who participated in the study came from various religious and educational backgrounds. They had an average of 2 living children; 62 of 65 women had only female children. All 65 participants sought a male child.]

Puri, S; Adams, V; Ivery, S; Nachtigal, R.D. [2011]. “There is such a thing as too many daughters, but not too many sons”: A qualitative study of son preference and fetal sex selection among Indian immigrants in the United States. Social Science and Medicine. 72(7): 1169-1176