Armenia is the second country in the world for the rate of selective abortions because of an obsessive desire for male children. Mariam is 31 and the mother of three daughters.
She comes from Armavir in western Armenia. Even after the birth of her second daughter she continued to follow her dream, trusting in the probability theory: to have a male child. Hence, when she discover that she was pregnant again with a daughter, she decided to have an abortion. I don't want to discover once again that I'm expecting a daughter and have to have an abortion again, I can't I keep telling myself that next time will be the good one.
In Armenia many women like Miriam often resort to selective abortion in order to have male children. They are convinced to do this by husbands or by family members, thus seriously risking their health and the demographic equilibrium of the country. According to the Global Gender Gap Report , Armenia is the second country in the world after China for the rate of selective abortions. The problem of selective abortions came to light with the independence of the country in the nineties.
Even though abortion was widely used in Armenia as a contraceptive since the period of the Soviet Union the first country to legalize abortion in This problem is not only seen in Armenia but it is common in all of the Caucasus. This is confirmed by the presence, in the first ten places of the countries with the highest number of selective abortions, of Azerbaijan 5th place and Georgia 8th place.
According to a UNFPA Armenia report, the country also has the highest male birth rate in the world and a sex ratio of male births to females while the world media is male births to females.
