China's legislature is unlikely to criminalize selective abortion of female fetuses as lawmakers are sharply divided over the issue and have deleted the provision from a draft legal amendment.

The first two versions of bills reviewed by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress provided fines and prison terms up to three years for anyone involved in gender identification of embryos for non-medical purposes.

But in a third version that will be voted on Thursday, lawmakers removed the stipulation because, they said, "many controversies remain."

Some lawmakers and the National Population and Family Planning Commission argued that the rising imbalance in the sex ratio among newborns is a complicated issue calling for a combination of solutions, and putting it into criminal law would simply drive potential offenders underground.

There are now 119 boys born in China for every 100 girls, much higher than the global ratio of 103 to 107 boys for every 100 girls.

Some lawmakers and legal experts attributed the gender imbalance to entrenched beliefs among a large segment of the population that boys are more valuable then girls, especially when parents reach old age and need support, and argued that such concepts can't be changed by legal means.

These lawmakers believe a pregnant woman has the right to know the sex of the fetus she's carrying and that an ultrasound test does not necessarily lead to abortion.

They also argued that it would be difficult to prove that a fetus had been aborted solely because of its gender.