Birth Spacing and Fertility in the Presence of Son Preference and Sex-Selective Abortions

India's Experience Over Four Decades

Bibliographic Data

ID10969106
AuthorsClaus C Pörtner (0000-0001-8052-9462, Department of Economics, Albers School of Business and Economics, Seattle University, Seattle, WA, USA; Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume59
Issue1
Pages61-88
Publication date2022-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDemography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0070-3370 • E-ISSN: 1533-7790
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00703370-9580703
PMID34779484
OpenAlexW3214717454
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited55

Since the advent of prenatal sex-determination technologies in the mid-1980s, India has experienced an increasingly male-biased sex ratio at birth, presumably from sex-selective abortions. Abortions lengthen birth intervals, but we know little about how birth spacing has changed or the effects of these changes. I show that, although the overall length of birth intervals increased from 1970 to the mid-2010s, well-educated women with no sons had the most substantial lengthening, as well as the most male-biased sex ratios. Furthermore, most of these changes took place immediately after the introduction of prenatal sex-determination technologies. Consequently, some women without sons now have longer birth intervals than those with sons, reversing India's traditional spacing pattern. Women with low education continue short birth spacing when they have no sons, with only limited evidence of male-biased sex ratios. Because of the rapid lengthening of birth intervals, period fertility rates substantially overestimated how fast cohort fertility fell. Moreover, predicted cohort fertility is still 10%–20% above the period fertility rate. If the lengthening of birth intervals arises from repeated abortions, the associated short pregnancy spacing may counteract any positive effects of longer birth spacing. There is, however, no evidence of this effect on infant mortality. Judging from sex ratios, sex-selective abortion use is not declining

Abortion · Biology · Birth rate · Cohort · Cohort study · Family planning · Fertility · Gynecology · Induced Abortions · Obstetrics · Population · Pregnancy · Research methodology · Sex ratio · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences · Demography · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Global Maternal and Child Health · Medicine

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