Would it champion gender equality, or undermine a woman's right to choose? A ban on abortions based on the sex of the fetus will be considered by the UK parliament next week. Supporters of a ban say that women from some ethnic minorities occasionally abort female fetuses and try instead for a son. Yet others say any such ban cannot be enforced and could damage hard-won abortion rights enshrined in UK law since 1967, "Gender selection is a horrible concept and it's easy to have a knee-jerk reaction," says Tracey Masters of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. "But this [ban] would interfere with clinical care." Sex-based abortions are a grey area of UK law. After a newspaper covertly filmed three doctors agreeing to arrange one, the health secretary stated that such abortions are illegal, But the doctors were not prosecuted because, according to legal advice, abortion in these circumstances is not necessarily unlawful.
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