Campaign group Right To Life UK has said that 400 girls are “missing” in the country due to sex-selective abortions.
It follows criticism of advice from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) suggesting that sex-selective abortions are not illegal.
According to the Department of Health and Social Care "Sex-selective abortion is illegal in England and Wales and will not be tolerated," and "sex is not a lawful ground for termination of pregnancy."
However, groups such as BPAS, the UK's largest abortion provider, and the British Medical Association (BMA) have argued that the 1967 Abortion Act does not explicitly ban sex-selective abortion and that if other grounds are legitimately met (such as the impact on mental health) then an abortion in which sex preference is a factor can proceed.
Right To Life UK pointed to government statistics which suggest that sex-selective abortions may be taking place in Britain, particularly within the Indian community.
An analysis of statistics from 2017 to 2021 found “evidence of a statistically significant imbalance in the ratio of males to females at birth for children of Indian ethnicity after 2 or more previous births, in England and Wales … This may indicate that sex selective abortions are taking place".
The government report added, “If so, it is estimated that approximately 400 sex selective abortions may have taken place to female foetuses over the 5 year period from 2017 to 2021. No other evidence suggesting sex selective abortions occurring in the United Kingdom over the period 2017 to 2021 has been found in this analysis.”
Catherine Robinson, Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, said, “It’s irresponsible for BPAS to publish advice suggesting that sex-selective abortion is not illegal, because it risks normalising sex-selective abortion and is likely encouraging abortions sought purely because of a baby’s sex."
Robinson warned that women facing pressure from family members to terminate a baby girl may find it harder to resist such demands.
She added that it was illogical for the government to say that sex-selective abortions are illegal while simultaneously pumping tens of millions of pounds into BPAS.
“The Government must act without delay to cut all funding it provides to BPAS, urgently update legislation to introduce an explicit ban on sex-selective abortion, and must not pursue further changes to legislation, such as those proposed in Scotland, that would likely make this problem much worse," she said.
