(Yerevan) A man earns a good living and provides for the old age of his parents. He defends his threatened country. He ensures the family line by transmitting his name.
Tsovinar Harutyunyan is well aware of the arguments put forward by families to justify their preference for a male baby. But the head of the Armenian office of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is not giving up her fight to end a taboo practice: selective abortions based on the sex of the fetus.
“We have to change people’s perception, which takes time,” said the woman, whom she met in her office in Yerevan. But we are already seeing some positive results that say we are on the right track. ”
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Tsovinar Harutyunyan, Head of the Armenian Office of the United Nations Population Fund
UNFPA recognized the phenomenon in Armenia 10 years ago. With around 115 male births per 100 female births – the natural ratio is around 105 percent – Armenia ranked third for its high proportion of male births, behind China and neighboring Azerbaijan.
If the situation continued at the same pace, in 2060 there would be some 93,000 never-born girls in this country of less than 3 million people.
A solution that requires the law?
A law was put in place in 2016 to ban gender-based abortions. Doctors should not reveal whether the fetus is male or female until the 12the week – period beyond which abortion is illegal, except for medical reasons.
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But the law is not an ideal solution, argue women’s rights defenders.
“We are not sure that this is the right way to go about legally binding,” Anna Hovhannisyan, research and policy officer for the NGO Women’s Resource Center, explains over the phone. It can lead to more clandestine abortions. ”
No data on this subject is available to measure this type of impact.
The case of a third birth
The subject remains taboo. Mme Hovhannisyan says he hears in private conversations about abortions performed beyond 12 weeks under medical pretenses, but suspecting that it is in fact a choice based on the sex of the fetus. Women are also turning to over-the-counter drugs that can cause termination of pregnancy – with the attendant medical risks.
“The experience of other countries shows us that, when there are very strict laws, abortions are done in another way, which increases the maternal mortality rate and that it is very difficult to monitor these measures. , underlines the head of the Armenian office of the UNFPA. For us, the message sent by the government is good, but what is needed is to change the way of thinking. ”
Girls are not badly received in Armenian society, she says. However, families prefer to have at least one boy among their children.
What we are going to see, for example, in a given region, where it is more conservative, is a high number of families where the first two children are girls and the third is systematically a boy.
Anna Hovhannisyan, Research and Policy Officer for the NGO Women’s Resource Center
Tsovinar Harutyunyan confirms the observation, noting that the gap between the number of boys and girls is greater in the case of a third birth, in a country where larger families remain scarce.
Technologies
The advancement of technologies to know the sex of the fetus raises fears, despite the law. For now, it remains difficult to determine it within 12 weeks.
“There are tools, not very reliable, which allow the sex of the fetus to be determined at seven or eight weeks,” says Dr.D Rusudan Vardanyan, Head of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Yerevan. It’s not very reliable, but people rely on it to request abortions. ”
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
The DD Rusudan Vardanyan, Head of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Yerevan
The gynecologist has been fighting against pregnancy terminations based on the sex of the fetus for many years.
“There aren’t a lot of people approaching me for that reason, but it does happen,” she says. I tell them that, first of all, there is the law and that, then, it is not reasonable to want to get rid of a girl. ”
UNFPA has noted, through its surveys, promising signs after awareness campaigns. For the year 2019, the organization reported a ratio of 111 male births per 100 female babies.
But the economic difficulties linked to COVID-19 and the war last year in Nagorno-Karabakh worry Tsovinar Harutyunyan. “We do not yet have data for 2020, but we know that after an armed conflict, generally, the preference for a son increases,” she emphasizes.
This report was produced thanks to a grant from the Quebec International Journalism Fund.