Abortion law tightened

The head of China's National Population and Family Planning Commission announced a tightening of laws banning selective abortion of female fetuses in an effort to correct the country's widening sex imbalance. The new laws will make fetal gender detection and selective abortion other than for legitimate medical purposes a criminal offence, state media reported. According to government figures, 119 boys are born in China for every 100 girls the international average is 106 boys to every 100 girls. China's one-child policy, implemented in the early 1980s, has been blamed for strengthening a traditional preference for boys.