Indian doctors suspended for sex-selection tests

(July 18, 2012) A dozen doctors have been suspended from practicing medicine in northern India’s state of Rajasthan after authorities found that they were administering illegal sex-determination tests to pregnant women. In an effort to combat the widespread practice of sex-selection abortion, India passed a law in 1994 making it illegal for doctors to reveal the gender of an unborn child. But that law is routinely violated, and since abortion is legal, parents continue to destroy female children. In the state of Rajasthan there are only 883 girls under the age of 6 for every 1,000 boys - a badly imbalanced ratio that testifies to the frequency of sex-selection abortion. Officials in Rajasthan have brought charges against more than 300 doctors and clinics for allegedly performing sex-determination tests. To date 21 doctors have been penalized under the 1994 law.