The outline for the Development of Chinese Children (2011-2020), released in August, announced China’s efforts to close the gender gap by eliminating sex-selective abortions. China currently has a male-to-female birth ratio of 119 male children for every 100 female children, and in some provinces the ratio is 130 males to 100 females. The development plan aims to eliminate the femicides by banning “ultrasonic techniques to conduct non-medical sex determination.” China's one-child policy has contributed to this practice of femicide.
The UNFPA, UNICEF, UN Women, WHO and OHCHR recently issued a joint statement about sex selective abortion: “Sex selection in favour of boys is a symptom of pervasive social, cultural, political, and economic injustices against women, and the manifest violation of human rights…there is a huge pressure on women to produce sons… which not only directly affects women’s reproductive decision, with implications for their health and survival, but also puts women in a position where they must perpetuate the lower status of girls though son preference.”
Compiled from: China Pledges to ban Sex-selective Abortion, Feminist Majority Foundation, Preventing Gender-biased Sex Selection Interagency Statement (17 August 2011).