Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the effect of sex-selective abortion on the gender balance in China and India; what assessment her Department has made of whether UK-funded equipment is not used to carry out sex-selective abortions in countries which receive UK aid; and on what evidence her Department has made that assessment.

The UK Government does not promote or support abortion on the grounds of gender. The practice of sex selection is not caused by the availability of abortion services or technologies but is a consequence of deep rooted discrimination against women, poverty and cultural preference for sons. Our work on girls' education, women's empowerment, skills and jobs aims to increase the ‘value’ of girls and women in society and therefore tackle the pressures and incentives that drive preferences for male children.

The UK has never supported or funded the one child policy and closed its bilateral aid programme to China in March 2011. In India, our partners are strongly committed to implementing India’s 1994 National Pre-Conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Regulation Act, which bans the use of medical technologies for sex selection purposes.