Sex-selective Abortion in India

Book excerpt: Does sex-selective abortion have an impact on gender differentials in child morbidity and mortality in India? If prenatal discrimination against girls has been substituting for postnatal discrimination, then eliminating sex-selective abortion may lead to an increase in excess female infant and child mortality. In this careful and thorough study that employs data from a 20-year period, Dr. Mary Elizabeth Shepherd investigates the issues behind the sex ratio imbalance in India. This timely work not only has critical implications for India, but its insightful findings will also be highly informative for many countries or societies dealing with sex ratio imbalances.