A farmer in Cangnan county, Zhejiang Province, Ye Gaoli, found out she was pregnant. Ye and her husband desperately wanted a boy. However, it is illegal to identify the gender of a fetus on the Chinese mainland. But Ye wanted to know the gender of her baby to decide if she wanted to keep it or not. She contacted a private clinic, paid 3,800 yuan ($611), took an ultrasound and decided to abort once she knew it was a girl.


This is not strange. Due to the family planning policy and Chinese traditional preferences for male children, a large number of pregnant women visit private clinics or even individuals, mostly without medical certificates, to discover the sex of their unborn child and have abortions. The fetuses are usually 3 to 4 months old or even months older.

One of the fertile industries was headed by Liu Ciwang and his wife Huang Xiaomiao, who did not have medical licenses. They used portable ultrasound machines and two vehicles – a total cost of 60,000 yuan.

Liu attracted pregnant women by handing out business cards, picked them up, and took their money. Huang, the wife, operated the ultrasound machine and induced the abortions while Li Bingfeng and Guo Ling were employed as drivers.

They operated from February 2010 to May 2012 and were jailed in early March 2013. They carried out 736 illegal ultrasounds and 15 gender-selective abortions in Zhejiang. Global Times reported.

"Illegal ultrasounds are running wild across China, in both economically developed areas and rural areas. Rich people want to have a male heir to inherit the family fortune while people in rural areas want strong manpower and farmers think boys can do more to help the family," Zhang Zhongtang, an expert on family planning from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences stated.

Quite sad....

http://www.infonubia.com/2013/04/desperate-measures-to-get-male-heirs-in.html