More BOYS Less GIRLS SEX SELECTION KILLS GIRLS

TV News Toronto

More male babies born to Indian immigrants in Canada: study

Christina Commisso, CTVNews.ca Writer

Published Monday, April 11, 2016 12:00PM EDT 

http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/more-male-babies-born-to-indian-immigrants-in-canada-study-1.2854015

An unusually high proportion of male babies are being born to Indian-born women living in Canada who already have two or more children, according to a new study.

Two papers on gender imbalance published on Monday shows that a skewed sex ratio among Indian-born mothers has been apparent throughout Canada for at least two decades.

An Ontario-focused study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal reveals that in the province, the gender imbalance increases significantly among Indian immigrants who have already had two girls and one abortion prior to the birth of their third child.

"All the previous papers published (about gender imbalance) looked only at the sex ratios and many inferred that this was due to abortion," lead author Dr. Marcelo Urquia, an epidemiologist at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview.

Urquia said the Ontario study is the first to examine abortion data when looking at gender imbalance.

In a national study, published in journal CMAJ Open, the researchers examined birth certificate data of 5.8 million births to Canadian-born women and 177,990 Indian-born women between 1990 and 2011.

Urquia said worldwide, between 103 and 107 boys are born for every 100 girls. Among Canadian-born women living in Canada, about 105 boys are born for every 100 girls.

However, during this time frame women born in India who already had two children gave birth to 138 baby boys in Canada for every 100 girls. If they had three children, they gave birth to 166 boys for every 100 girls.

In the Ontario study, Urquia found that women who already had two daughters gave birth to 196 boys for every 100 girls.

The study also noted that:

• The sex ratio rises to 326 boys for every 100 girls if the Indian-born mother with two daughters had an abortion prior to the third birth.
• It rises to 409 boys for every 100 girls if the mother had more than one abortion.
• The sex ratio rises again to 663 boys for every 100 girls if the mother had at least one abortion after 14 weeks of pregnancy, when the sex of the fetus can be predicted by an ultrasound.

The researchers "conservatively estimate," that 4,472 female fetuses of Indian immigrants living in Canada were "unaccounted for" over the last two decades.

"These are 4,500 girls who were not born and should have been born, if the sex ratio was balanced," Urquia explained.

He said some hospitals have implemented policies that prohibit ultrasound sonographers from revealing the baby's gender to parents.

But Urquia said he doesn't believe these policies are effective in preventing sex-selective abortions.

"Ultrasound technology is widely available," he said. "Couples may go to a private clinic offering ultrasound services; they can go south of the border or even travel to another country and get the information they are after."

Urquia said there won't be any long-term implications from this gender imbalance in Canada, but he said the studies raise questions about the value certain communities place on women.

"These findings are showing us that there is, among certain immigrant groups, maybe a preference for males," he said.

"This raises questions whether these girls…are also at a disadvantage in infancy, childhood, adolescence or adulthood."

He continued: "This is a particular manifestation of that male-dominated culture around birth, but there might be some other biases affecting girls and women in other life stages."

#EndTheKilling >>Am I the only one to be horrified>> sex selection in favour of male fetuses

Some couples in Canada practicing prenatal sex selection in favour of male fetuses, studies show

WENCY LEUNG
The Globe and Mail

Published Monday, Apr. 11, 2016 12:00PM EDT Last updated Monday, Apr. 11, 2016 12:43PM EDT
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/some-couples-in-canada-practising-prenatal-sex-selection-in-favour-of-male-fetuses-studies-show/article29583670/

It is rarely openly discussed and difficult to prove, but new research suggests that some couples in Canada are practicing prenatal sex selection, aborting female fetuses out of a preference for male children.

Two related studies, published on Monday in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal), found a higher-than-expected ratio of boys to girls born to immigrants from India over the past two decades, which researchers linked to preceding abortions. This gender imbalance was particularly striking among families that already had two daughters.


“This suggests that many of the abortions may have involved female fetuses. And that’s why the sex ratio at the third birth is distorted,” said Marcelo Urquia, a researcher at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto who led both studies.

“I think the most important implication is that some immigrant groups put more value on the life of sons than daughters,” he added. “If a son preference exists at this point in life, this raises the question of whether females in some immigrant communities are also at a disadvantage at other life stages – for example, in infancy, childhood, adolescence and adulthood.”

The suggestion that certain immigrant groups in Canada use abortion to select the sex of their children has long been a contentious issue. Politicians and activists have argued for legal limits on abortion to deter sex-selection. And a controversial CMAJ editorial in 2012 recommended banning the disclosure of the sex of a fetus until 30 weeks, when abortions are performed only in rare circumstances. But such measures are difficult to enforce and, some argue, unjustifiably sweeping, while others note that identifying and targeting specific groups for practising sex selection is discriminatory.

One of the studies published Monday examined national data for 5.9 million births, between 1990 and 2011, to Canadian-born women and 177,990 births to women who had been born in India.
Among Canadian-born mothers, the researchers found that about 105 boys were born for every 100 girls, consistent with the natural odds of 103 to 107 boys for every 100 girls.

By contrast, among Indian-born mothers, the proportion of males increased with the number of children born. By the third birth, 138 boys were born to Indian-born mothers for every 100 girls, and by the fourth birth, 166 boys were born to every 100 girls.
The researchers estimated that over the past two decades, there have been at least 4,472 “missing girls” – that is, female fetuses not born to Indian immigrants in Canada, primarily in families where both parents are from India.

Although a preference for sons is recognized among other groups, the authors noted that they zeroed in on immigrants from India because of its high documented male-to-female ratios, and because the country contributes a large number of immigrants who give birth in Canada.

The second study examined records for more than 1.2 million babies born in Ontario between 1993 and 2012 to women who had up to three children. Within the province, researchers found women from India who already had two daughters gave birth to 196 boys for every 100 girls. If an Indian-born mother with two daughters received an abortion before their third child, the ratio jumped to 326 boys for every 100 girls, and 409 boys for every 100 girls if the mother had multiple abortions.

While couples may allow for a daughter as their first or second child, the skewed sex ratios likely appear in subsequent births as families approach their limit in size, Urquia explains. “Then this issue of having a son becomes more important for some families.”
The second study also indicated a slight imbalance in boys born to Chinese immigrants, but Urquia said the researchers did not find this was linked to abortions.

In an accompanying commentary in CMAJ, authors Abdool Yasseen and Thierry Lacaze-Masmonteil of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa said the results of these studies offer “strong evidence” of the use of abortion for prenatal sex selection, and called for discussion aimed at examining and developing public-health policies to curb the practice.

“We need to sort of approach that with tact because you don’t want to single out a particular ethnic group, but you do want to intervene if something discriminatory is happening,” said Yasseen, a clinical investigator.

Although sex selection is banned in Canada when it comes to assisted reproductive treatment, the country has no law on abortion, including its use for sex selection. While professional bodies, such as the Society for Obstetricians and Gyneologists of Canada, have policies against sex-selective abortions and against the use of medical testing solely for identifying a fetus’s sex, some parents and doctors object, arguing that parents have the right to know, Yasseen and Lacaze-Masmonteil wrote.

While studies such as the ones published Monday may show patterns that indicate sex selection is likely occurring, individual parents do not often openly acknowledge using abortion for that purpose.

Shree Mulay, associate dean and professor of community health and humanities at Memorial University of Newfoundland, said she has heard accounts from social workers who have had women ask for the sex of their fetuses, only to later learn that they terminated the pregnancy after finding out.

Mulay, who specializes in immigrant women’s health, said women are not necessarily the ones seeking sex-selective abortion, but may feel pressured to do so by their families.

One reason males may be preferred, she said, is that, “according to the Indian family customs, the male of the family is supposed to … take responsibility for looking after the elderly parents.”
Even though this does not always happen in practice today, Mulay, a founding member of Montreal’s South Asian Women’s Community Centre, said some people tend to adhere to traditions, even more rigidly than they might otherwise in their country of origin, as they settle in a new place.

“But traditions have to be challenged,” she said, adding that to be effective, efforts to change attitudes that favour sons over daughters must come from within the immigrant groups themselves.
At Mosaic, an immigrant and refugee settlement organization based in Vancouver, Ninu Kang said she already sees signs of this happening among various immigrant groups. The preference for male children decreases as families recognize females have greater opportunities and are more empowered in Canadian society, she said.

For example, she said families in Canada increasingly celebrate the Punjabi festival Lohri, which is traditionally held in honour of the birth of a boy, for their daughters as well.

Amrita Mishra, project director of the Indo-Canadian Women’s Association in Edmonton, said the key issue is that the existing legal loopholes allow anyone to use abortion for infant sex selection.

“I see Canada as enabling as such practices. And I refuse to have this turn into an Indian issue that’s been imported like vegetables or fruit into Canada,” Mishra said, noting that a law against sex-selective abortion would send a powerful message to anyone considering the practice.

“When one says Indians or Chinese, Koreans or Philippines have brought this problem to a country, we really need to take a good solid look at ourselves and ask ourselves what are the laws in this country that allow this to happen?” she said.