India's prime minister on Monday called the widespread practice of aborting female fetuses a “national shame,” saying India could no longer ignore the problem if it wanted to be a modern nation. Experts believe up to 500,000 female fetuses are being aborted every year due to rampant discrimination against women and deep-rooted cultural preference in India for male children. “This is a national shame and we must face this challenge squarely here and now,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Monday opening a conference on ways to “Save the girl child.” “No nation, no society, no community can hold its head high and claim to be part of the civilized world if it condones the practice of discriminating against one half of humanity represented by women,” Singh said. Aborting female fetuses was the worst manifestation of this discrimination, he said. According to UNICEF, about 7,000 fewer girls than expected are born every day in India - leading to a widening gap in the ratio between men and women. In one area, there were just 798 girls for every thousand boys, said Singh. The problem has been made worse by the introduction of ultrasound technology that allows parents to see the sex of the fetus and abort girls. Such tests have been outlawed in India since 1991, but the rules are frequently flouted.
