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Selective abortions, infanticides and deaths of girls resulted from abandonment and neglect have skewed the natural sex ratio in Azerbaijan, writes the Spanish edition of The Huffington Post, citing the data of the Population Research Institute.

According to the article, 112 boys are born for every 100 girls in China, Vietnam, India and Azerbaijan because of sex-selective termination of pregnancy; while the natural sex ratio is 105 boys for every 100 girls at birth (the proportions eventually change because of higher mortality rates among boys). The numbers further aggravate because of sex-selection via infanticide, abandonment and neglect – Azerbaijan (114:100), China and India (113:100), Vietnam (112:100), Albania (111:100) (among the 0-4 years old age group).

According to the Population Research Institute, 1.330.000 selective abortions of girls took place across the world in 2013 alone, meaning that a girl was aborted every 23 seconds, The Huffington Post writes.

According to a UN report, Azerbaijan has the highest sex-selective abortion rates. Azerbaijani experts say Azerbaijan is leading with the number of sex-selective abortions in Central Asia. In particular, the Azerbaijani expert Matanat Azizova believes that the cause of increasing number of abortions in Azerbaijan are unemployment, low wages and corruption. The gynecologist Leyla Mammadova says that abortions are widespread among under-age girls in Azerbaijan.

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