China closes clinics in illegal abortions crackdown

A northern Chinese province has closed 201 clinics in a crackdown on the illegal detection and abortion on female foetuses blamed for a worrisome imbalance in the numbers of male offspring.

The crackdown in Hebei province involved 848 cases of illegal abortions, involving 745 hospitals and clinics, the Shanghai Daily said.

Along with those facilities ordered closed, 374 others were fined, it said.

Legal cases were reportedly opened against three medical workers involved in arranging the illegal checks and abortions.

China bans the use of ultrasound or other means to determine whether a foetus is a boy or a girl, but doctors who do so only face administrative penalties and not criminal charges.

Politicians have been pushing to make it a crime, underscoring concerns over the widening gender gap due to the traditional Chinese preference for male offspring and policies limiting most couples to one child.

Official figures show 117 boys are born in China for every 100 girls, while the Shanghai Daily said that in some parts of Hebei the ratio was as high as 134 to 100.

Such imbalances have led to fears of a huge surplus of men who will be unable to find partners in coming decades, leading to potential social instability.