January 18th, 2012
Doctors who withhold an unborn baby’s sex are helping fight an onslaught of gender-based abortions, one physician is arguing.
Dr. Rajendra Kale says doctors should wait 30 weeks before telling a pregnant woman her baby’s gender, a practice he says could curb sex selection.
Aborting female babies is still a common practice in countries such as India, China, Korea and Vietnam, he says — and it happens in North America, too.
“Should female feticide in Canada be ignored because it is a small problem localized to minority ethnic groups?” he asked.
“Small numbers cannot be ignored when the issue is about discrimination against women in its most extreme form.”
Kale’s research was published Monday in an editorial, “It’s a girl — could be a death sentence,” in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
He is the interim editor-in-chief of the publication
“A pregnant woman being told the sex of the fetus at ultrasonography at a time when an unquestioned abortion is possible is the starting point of female feticide from a health care perspective,” Kale wrote.
Women usually learn the sex of their baby around 18 to 22 weeks, during a routine ultrasound, msnbc.com reported.
Kale, a doctor in Canada who is originally from Mumbai, India, cited a U.S. study in which 65 immigrant Indian women admitted to extreme pressure to give birth to males. Of these women, 40% had undergone abortions of female fetuses. Of the women who were currently pregnant, 89% were pursuing abortions if they were carrying a girl.
While Kale argues that an unborn baby’s gender isn’t medically relevant information, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists points out that withholding information from the mother isn’t ethical.
“Because a patient is entitled to obtain personal medical information, including information about the sex of her fetus, it will sometimes be impossible for health care professionals to avoid unwitting participating in sex selection,” the organization has said in a report.
Kale’s call to postpone telling moms-to-be the gender of their baby comes at a time when women can learn the sex of their child earlier than ever.
Last year, a study found that as early as seven weeks, doctors can discover a baby’s sex through DNA samples, the Los Angeles Times reported.
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