Vietnam to ban gender testing

Vietnam restricts families to two children

By Clare Arthurs in Hanoi

The authorities in Vietnam are preparing a law which will stop doctors from performing tests on pregnant women which will tell them whether they will have a son or daughter.

Many Vietnamese prefer a boy to a girl

The draft law is aimed at stopping the abortion of females in a society where many parents prefer to have sons.

Senior officials are concerned that Vietnam's current population imbalance, where there are more men than women, could get worse.

The draft law to ban the gender determination technology is expected to be subject to a general debate before it is sent to the national assembly for approval next year.

High abortion rate

It is partly because of years of war that Vietnam has more men than women.

Having an imbalance of men to women could lead to violence as men compete for partners

But in this largely rural and traditional Asian society, many couples prefer to have sons to carry on the family line and to care for them in old age.

Vietnam has one of the world's highest rates of abortion.

It is used as a contraceptive and, the authorities fear, as a way of ensuring that pregnancy results in sons, not daughters.

Two-child policy

The new law to ban gender testing is being prepared with the support of the National Committee for Population and Family Planning.

China has a strict one-child policy

It has warned that having an imbalance of men to women could lead to violence as men compete for partners.

Vietnam's rulers urge people to control the size of their families as part of their economic and social responsibilities to the country, where the population has reached about 80 million.

Women are encouraged to delay having children until their early twenties and there is a two-child policy.

In the most extreme cases, parents can be penalised for having a third child.

They can be expelled from the Communist Party or have their land confiscated.

Gender imbalance

But Vietnam has decided against a one-child policy after looking across the border to China where the policy has led to a massive gender imbalance.

There is also concern about the rate of abortions in Vietnam.

The average is for a women to have two abortions in her lifetime.

The high rate is attributed to the use of terminations as contraception and also to the trend for urban living and, among the young, more liberal attitudes to sex.