ArmeniaNow  --  A new study shows that Armenians are six times as likely to prefer baby boys than girls – something that perhaps accounts for many abortions when future parents learn they are going to have a daughter. An estimated 1,400 girls do not get born in Armenia annually because of that attitude.

In Armenia boys have always been preferred by parents (very often by both parents and their extended families) due to the higher status that males traditionally enjoy in society. However, it was not until recently that technological advancement allowed future parents to learn the sex of the unborn baby, which gave rise to this new problem of decision making based on the sex of the unborn baby when it comes to abortions.

A research initiated by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and conducted this year across Armenia among 2,800 women who have ever had pregnancies suggests that 7,200 women (or 0.8 percent of all women of reproductive age, of whom there are an estimated 900,000 in Armenia) have resorted to sex-selective abortions in the past five years. The report suggests that this seemingly small percentage of women who have abortions based on the sex of the expected child accounts for some 1,400 unborn baby girls every year. And this is almost one in ten abortions made in Armenia annually (according to the national statistics, some 10,000 abortions are made in Armenia on the average).

“The presence of the problem of sex-selective abortions was already evident from the data provided by maternity hospitals, because such a prevalence of male births is unnatural,” says Prof. Razmik Abrahamyan, Director of the Institute of Reproductive Health, Perinatology, Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Armenian Health Ministry.

Abrahamyan stresses that the problem is not a new one, simply while in the past “families that could not bear a son would keep trying until they achieved their goal now prefer having abortions as many times as is needed until they get a son.”

According to the Prevalence and Reasons of Sex Selective Abortions in Armenia report that was presented in Yerevan on Monday, since 1993 the ratio of boys and girls born in Armenia made 110-120 boys to 100 girls, while the biologically normal ratio is 102-106 to 100.

Earlier this year, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) adopted a resolution calling the disproportion in sex selection in Armenia and several other countries, including regional neighbors Azerbaijan and Georgia, “alarming”.

In the “Prenatal Sex Selection” resolution PACE experts said that such a disproportion results in some serious social problems: “Difficulties for men to find spouses lead to serious human rights violations such as forced prostitution, trafficking for the purposes of marriage or sexual exploitation, and contribute to a rise in criminality and social unrest.” The resolution called on the governments in the countries in question to step up efforts to raise the role of women in society.

According to the PACE, in Azerbaijan (as well as in Albania) the situation is the same (112 boys per 100 girls), while in Georgia the ratio is 111 boys for 100 girls.

In Armenia, according to the data of the National Statistical Service, there were 3,000 more baby boys than girls born in 2010 – making it a 114/100 ratio, which is by 9 more than the assumed norm.

The UNFPA-initiated study suggests that if the current rate of selective abortions persists in Armenia for another 20 years the country will be short of some 28,000 potential mothers – a serious demographic challenge for a country of (officially) 3 million people whose population keeps dwindling for a variety of reasons.

“By losing our future mothers, we will have additional pressure on our proper demographic development. Let’s take the example of China. The one-child-per-family policy adopted there during the last 40 years has led to some serious problems. Abortions led to the birth of more boys and now according to different estimates 40-60 million men in China cannot find their partners. Meanwhile, it had created preconditions for a 25-percent rise in the crime rate, trafficking,” says Garik Hayrapetyan, UNFPA Armenia Assistant Representative.

According to experts, the main reasons for having a baby boy are conditioned by the desire to keep and continue the family name, to have a successor as well as by the more influential position that men enjoy in society.

“But most importantly, it is a human rights violation, it is the violation of the right to life,” says Hayrapetyan. “This is a process. One shouldn’t look for those guilty, this is the result of a clash of traditional and technologically-advanced thinking.”