"A woman can take the test [perhaps over-the-counter], and then take pills to terminate the pregnancy in the privacy of her home when it’s that early on."For background, read Worldwide Abortion: The War on Girls
-- From "Boy or girl? A simple test raises ethical concerns" by Deborah Kotz, Boston Globe Staff 8/10/11
Pregnant couples wishing to know the gender of their unborn baby can usually find out during a routine ultrasound performed at around 20 weeks of pregnancy, but a review published yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that a test of the mother’s blood performed at seven weeks may be even more reliable.
The test - which checks fetal cells in the mother’s blood for the Y chromosome present only in male cells - has been available in Europe for years but has not found its way into routine medical practice in the United States. That could change given the new review, which analyzed 57 studies involving a total of 6,500 pregnancies and found that the tests were more than 95 percent accurate at determining gender at seven weeks. By 20 weeks, the accuracy was 99 percent.
Given the validation of the test’s accuracy, specialists say it’s only a matter of time before doctors begin offering it here - and that could raise ethical concerns if couples terminate a pregnancy when the fetus is not the gender of their choice. In some countries, including India and China, the percentage of girl babies has dropped precipitously in recent years, probably because of gender selection in favor of boys.
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From "Blood tests to predict baby's gender shown to work: Will abortion rate soar?" by Ryan Jaslow, CBS News / Associated Press 8/10/11
. . . the study raised concerns about couples using such tests for gender selection and abortion. Couples who buy tests should be questioned about how they plan to use the results, the researchers said.
Dr. Lee Shulman, chief of clinical genetics at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, said . . . "I would have a lot of difficulties offering such a test just for gender identification. My concern is this is ultimately going to be available in malls or shopping centers."
There's little data on reasons for U.S. abortions or whether gender-detection methods play a role.
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