In a shocking and heinous crime, a seven-month pregnant woman’s stomach was ripped open allegedly by her husband on 19 September evening in Uttar Pradesh’s Badaun district to allegedly find out the sex of the foetus.
The woman’s family said that the accused wanted a son and was disappointed that his wife birthed five daughters earlier.
Speaking to The Quint, additional Badaun Superintendent of Police Praveen Singh Chauhan said, “An FIR has been registered under Section 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code and the husband, whose name is Pannalal, has also been arrested.” Chauhan also added that the accused is unemployed.
“We are doing everything we can. Her condition and that of her unborn baby’s are critical right now,” the doctor at the Bareilly hospital said.
The locals immediately rushed the woman to the district hospital from where she was sent to Bareilly on account of having sustained a grievous injury.
India’s Worsening Female Foeticide
Sex-selective abortion is the practice of terminating a pregnancy based on the predicted sex of the infant. The Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act was enacted in 1994 to ban sex-selective abortion and stop female foeticide.
At least 15.8 million girls went missing in India due to prenatal sex selection between 1990 and 2018, revealed a study by the Population Research Institute (PRI)
India's gender ratio, or the number of females per 1,000 males, was 896 between 2015 and 2017. This reduced down from 898 in 2014-2016 and 900 in 2013-2015.
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