The Taiwanese Bureau of Health Promotion is instituting formal punishments for doctors found to be performing sex-selective abortions on female fetuses, a practice that, despite its illegality, is widespread on the island and elsewhere – a problem often referred to as “missing daughters”.
The Bureau’s director-general, Chiu Shu-ti, argued that sex-selective abortions are a violation of human rights, and that any doctors caught conducting such procedures would be subject to fines up to Tw$500,000 (about $17,400) and may even have their licenses revoked.
An investigation of two Taiwanese hospitals by the Bureau found that more than 90% of babies delivered were male. The government suspects that doctors comply with parents’ wishes to perform the abortions after ultrasounds allow the parents to know the sex of the fetus.
Compiled from: “Taiwan to punish doctors for sex-selective abortions (17 May 2011).”