{"id":303219,"date":"2023-12-11T14:43:31","date_gmt":"2023-12-11T20:43:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=303219"},"modified":"2023-12-12T10:43:54","modified_gmt":"2023-12-12T16:43:54","slug":"vietnam-epidemic-sex-selective-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/vietnam-epidemic-sex-selective-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"Vietnam grapples with an epidemic of sex-selective abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The small southeastern nation of Vietnam has had an astronomical abortion rate for the greater part of the 20th century. But the three major factors that influence the high abortion rate in Vietnam \u2013 a cultural preference for sons, below replacement rates of fertility, and easy access to abortion \u2013 make it an especially lethal place for preborn baby girls.<\/p>\n

Abortion in Vietnam has been legal since 1945, and in 1960, the gestational limit was expanded to 22 weeks of pregnancy. In 1971, it was made legal on demand, and after the country\u2019s reunification in 1975, was liberally available all over the country. Now it has the tragic distinction of being the place with the most liberal abortion laws in the world, and the country with among the most abortions in the world per capita. The average Vietnamese woman has 2.5 abortions over the course of her life.<\/p>\n

The most recent numbers from the World Population Review<\/a> show the tiny country of Vietnam has an abortion rate second only to Russia. But even older data sets are horrifying. According to the Guttmacher Institute<\/a>, nearly 44% of all pregnancies<\/em> in the country between 2015-2019 ended in abortion, and that doesn\u2019t even include<\/a> data from private abortion businesses.<\/p>\n