Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they intend to ensure greater accuracy in gathering gender-correlated abortion statistics.
Sex of the fetus is not recorded on the HSA4 forms submitted to the Chief Medical Officer; the gender of the fetus is not known for most abortions.
The Department’s latest analysis of birth ratios data published in May found no evidence of sex selection taking place in the United Kingdom. However, we will continue to monitor birth ratios and consider any other evidence that comes to light.