"Sex is not a lawful ground for termination of pregnancy"
Government research has found that Indian parents in the UK who want boys could be using IVF or abortion to avoid having girls.
Analysis by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) found a “statistically significant imbalance” in the ratio of boy to girl births for children of Indian ethnicity between 2017 and 2021.
The report concluded: “This may indicate that sex-selective abortions are taking place.
“If so, it is estimated that approximately 400 sex-selective abortions may have taken place to female foetuses over the five-year period from 2017 to 2021.”
During this period, 3.6 million births were registered across the UK. The national birth ratio stood at 105.4 males for every 100 females, which is below the accepted upper limit of 107.
Statisticians say ratios above 107 strongly indicate sex selection at birth, where parents use a range of methods to secure a child of their preferred gender.
Among Indian families where the mother had already given birth to two or more children, the ratio rose to 113 males for every 100 females, described by the DHSC as “significantly higher” than the 107 threshold.
No similar imbalance was found in the earlier dataset covering 2016 to 2020.
Despite committing to provide further annual updates, the DHSC has not yet released newer figures following the 2017 to 2021 findings.
A DHSC spokesman said: “This Government’s position is unequivocal: sex-selective abortion is illegal in England and Wales and will not be tolerated.
“Sex is not a lawful ground for termination of pregnancy, and it is a criminal offence for any practitioner to carry out an abortion for that reason alone.
“Anyone with evidence that this illegal practice is occurring must report it to the police immediately.
“We continue to work closely with providers to ensure that abortions are only performed in accordance with the strict legal grounds set out in the Abortion Act.”
The department said it remained committed to publishing updated data covering 2018 to 2023, with publication dates to be announced “in due course”.
Separate academic research supports evidence of sex selection among Indian-born mothers through methods such as sperm sorting and pre-implantation techniques.
A study backed by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and led by Professor Sylvie Dubuc of Strasbourg University found that sex selection was confined to fewer than five per cent of Indian-born mothers at its peak between 1990 and 2005. The rate declined between 2006 and 2018.
The decision to publish annual updates on sex ratios followed the rejection of a parliamentary Bill to ban sex-selective abortion.
MPs warned at the time that such a ban could harm women’s access to safe abortion services and lead to ethnic profiling.
Conservative peer Baroness Eaton has since warned that the issue could worsen if proposals in the Crime and Policing Bill to decriminalise abortion become law.
She is seeking to amend the legislation to explicitly outlaw sex-selective abortion.
She said: “The Government’s own data suggests that there are hundreds of missing baby girls as a result of sex-selective abortion taking place right here in the UK.
“This disturbing problem could get much worse if the abortion clause in the Crime and Policing Bill becomes law, and sex-selective abortion is legalised for women performing their own abortions at home.”
Professor Dubuc’s research found that son preference is often linked to economic pressures, religious and social influences, and cultural norms that prioritise males for lineage, leadership, and social roles.
It described prenatal sex selection as an “unintended side effect” of advances in foetal diagnostics, sex determination methods, and embryo implantation techniques.
The researchers said the so-called “stopping rule”, where parents stop having children once they have a desired number of boys, does not fully explain the birth imbalance.
Using Office for National Statistics (ONS) birth registration data, the study found that the imbalance among Indian-born mothers was driven by third and later male births.
No such imbalance was found among Bangladeshi-born or Pakistani-born mothers in England.
The researchers concluded: “We found that sex-selection remained confined to a maximum of less than five per cent of Indian-born mothers at the peak period (1990-2005) and reduced in the most recent period (2006-2017).
“Son preference has not vanished among British Asian communities and we recommend alternative policy options supporting women’s reproductive autonomy while encouraging the weakening of son/gender preferences in childbearing.”
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