The British overnment has dismissed calls to monitor the sex of aborted babies despite evidence that abortion on the grounds of sex is taking place in Britain, reports The Catholic Herald.
UK Health Minister Earl Howe said monitoring the babies’ sex would be too costly and would cause distress to too many women.
Niall Gooch, from the charity Life, called the response “disappointing”, adding: “It is clear that gender abortion is a genuine problem, but the Government is not doing much about it.”
Government officials report that birth rates for boys and girls vary depending on where their mothers were born. Earl Howe has said these differences may “fall outside the range considered possible without intervention”.
Earl Howe, responding to a question from Lord Alton of Liverpool, said that recording the sex of aborted foetuses would require the introduction of expensive new tests.
He said he was also concerned about the distress it would cause to women “during what is already a difficult time”.
“There would need to be an informed discussion with women, in particular to explain the rationale for testing and whether they wish for the result of the test to be shared with them,” he said.
FULL STORY UK government rejects callls to monitor sex of aborted babies (Catholic Herald)