Girls wanted: The influence of public policies on prenatal sex selection
Several Asian countries including India, South Korea and Vietnam have been experiencing high sex ratio at birth over the last decades. The surplus of male births is linked to prenatal sex selective abortions. Deeply rooted son preference combined with access to modern reproductive technologies are behind this practice that has led to over 160 million “missing women” in Asia.
The overall research objective is to provide a comparative policy analysis of government interventions targeting sex selection in selected Asian countries. The PhD project reviews existing public policies targeting sex selection and provides a comprehensive framework to assess them, exposing strengths and weaknesses as perceived by policy makers and international experts.
In a mixed methods research design the PhD thesis combines the results of qualitative semi-structured expert interviews and secondary demographic data analysis to inform policy choices and to stimulate further research on how skewed sex ratio at birth can be effectively addressed.