Sex-selective abortion (also referred to as son preference or female deselection) are methods of sex-selection which are practiced in areas where male children are valued over female children. Sex-selective abortion refers to the targeted abortion of female fetuses; the fetus' sex may be identified by ultrasound but also rarely by amniocentesis or another procedure. These practices arise in areas where cultural norms value male children over female children. Societies that practice sex selection in favor of males are quite common, especially in countries like The People's Republic of China, Korea, Iran, Pakistan, Taiwan, and India. In some regions of Indonesia, however people prefer female rather than male. In 2005, 90 million women were estimated to be missing in seven Asian countries alone, apparently due to sex-selective abortion. The existence of the practice appears to be determined by culture, rather than by economic conditions, because such deviations in sex ratios do not exist in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Sex-selective abortion was rare before the late 20th century, because of the difficulty of determining the sex of the fetus before birth, but ultrasound has made such selection easier. However, prior to this, parents would alter family sex compositions through infanticide. It is believed to be responsible for at least part of the skewed birth statistics in favor of males in mainland China, India, Taiwan, and South Korea.
