About 80 thousand girls not born in Armenia because of sex-selective abortions

YEREVAN, April 19. /ARKA/. About 80,000 girls have not been born in Armenia over the past 30 years because of sex- selective abortions, Armenian Health Minister Anahit Avanesyan said in parliament on Wednesday.

"This is a gruesome figure. In order to have a healthy and stable society, we need the ratio of boys to girls to be natural, with no artificial interference. We see the poor demographic results of other countries, and we don't want that," she said.

Avanesyan noted that until 2020, the ratio was improving, with the gap between girls and boys decreasing year by year. In 2020, however, the war (in Nagorno-Karabakh, when thousands of young men were killed) has caused a shift again.

"I hope that this trend will stop and we will continue to improve the situation," the minister said.

Abortion has been legal in Armenia since Soviet times. Current Armenia’s law on abortion adopted in 2016 allows woman to terminate a pregnancy during the first 12 weeks. A termination can also be performed before twelve weeks based on a physician’s determination and the consent of the woman.

Termination of pregnancies between 12 to 22 weeks are possible only in cases of medical problems (including inheriting a sex-related disease by infant) or social factors. In any other case not legally allowed, including gender-based termination, abortions in pregnancies from 12 to 22 weeks are prohibited. -0-