Albania urged to stop sex-selective abortions

TIRANA, Feb. 20 – The Council of Europe has revealed that sex-selective abortion is widely practiced in Albania and the result is a growing gulf between the numbers of boys and the number of girls. Recent statistics show that for every 100 Albanian girls 112 boys are born. In natural demographic growth, the number of girls usually slightly exceeds the number of boys.
The Council of Europe warns that sex-selection, once associated mainly with Asian countries, has become popular in Europe, particularly in Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
“Traditionally Albanian families have favored boys over girls for two main reasons: the inheritance of the family name and the prospect of boys growing up to become breadwinners,” a 2005 report by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) said.
Abortion in Albania was legalized in 1995 after the fall of the communist government. It is now available on demand up to the 12th week of pregnancy.
But it is hardly a well-supported idea as doctors and experts in the country may argue pro and against it. Very few are pro, in fact.
Rubena Moisiu, the chief physician at the Kico Gliozheni hospital in Tirana, acknowledges that there are no accurate statistics. She adds, however, that “based on our surveys made in the largest gynecological clinic in the country, in 2010 alone there were 470 abortions, the main causes of which were economic reasons, deformities and the sex of the fetus.”
Another well-known doctor in the country, Halim Kosova, head of the other maternity home in the capital, in not in favor of that idea.
Other experts would also say that those figures could have been affected by the recent developments in the post-communist country. Many couples have gone abroad in immigration. There has also been a tradition among the Albanian population that new families look for a boy first and hard times make them abandon the idea of having a second child.
Despite all these opposing views the Council of Europe report has urged authorities to work on a new law on likely prohibiting couples seeing the sex of the baby during pregnancy.