China's top lawmakers want to make it a crime for doctors to detect an unborn baby's sex for non-medical reasons, in a bid to combat the abortion of female fetuses.
Holding its annual session next weekend, the National People's Congress will also consider an anti-secession law and personnel changes associated with the retirement of former President Jiang Zemin from his last government post.
On the abortion issue, it is already illegal to use an ultrasound screening or other means to find out if a fetus is a boy or a girl, but doctors who do so face only administrative penalties - not criminal charges, the China Youth Daily reported yesterday.
"Despite the ban on detecting the sex of a fetus, such illegal detection still exists, causing a serious imbalance in the sex ratio of the newborn population," the report said.
The NPC's Standing Committee has proposed laws that would criminally prosecute doctors who defy the ban, the paper said.
Government figures show that 117 boys are born on China's mainland for every 100 girls. In a society that values sons and where a one-child policy is widely implemented, many parents abort baby girls, hoping to try again for a boy.
In some rural areas, the ratio is approaching 150 boys for every 100 girls, leading to fears of a huge surplus of unmarried men as well as other social problems, the China Youth Daily said.
The issue is not as serious in big cities such as Shanghai, where gender is not so important and the ratio between boy and girl babies is about 105 to 100.
"As a developed city, our longtime residents don't have a bias against girls," said Wang Caiqin of the Jing'an District Population and Family Planning Commission. "But migrant people who deliver babies here still value boys much more, and the sex ratio in this group is 110 to 100 or even higher."
Shanghai health authorities pointed out they enforce strict rules against non-medical gender checks on fetuses and conduct extensive inspections at hospitals that use ultrasonic scans on pregnant women. Only three city hospitals are authorized to carry out abortions associated with gender-based hereditary diseases.
"All our staff members are educated not to reveal the gender of the fetus to parents if there are no medical reasons to do so. And if someone does, he or she would be subjected to severe criticism and possible loss of license," said Duan Tao, vice president of the Shanghai No. 1 Maternity and Child Health Hospital.
"But it is a difficult violation to catch, so the criminal penalties might be tough to enforce," Duan added.
The annual session of the NPC will be held in Beijing's Great Hall of the People and is expected to last 10 days.
NPC Vice Chairman Wang Zhaoguo said details of the anti-secession bill will be revealed on March 8.
The NPR will also approve personnel changes, the most significant of them involving Jiang yielding his last post to President Hu Jintao.
Jiang, 78, will retire as chairman of the state Central Military Commission.