title: A framework for analyzing sex-selective abortion: the example of changing sex ratios in Southern Caucasus.
abstract: The paper proposes a socioeconomic framework of supply, demand, and regulation to explain the development of sex-selective abortion in several parts of the world. The framework is then applied to three countries of southern Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia) where sex-selective abortion has developed since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The authors argue that sex-selective abortion cannot be explained simply by patriarchal social systems, sex discrimination, or son preference. The emphasis is put on the long-term acceptability of abortion in the region, on acceptability of sex-screening by both the medical establishment and by the population, on newly imported techniques of sex-screening, and on the changing demand for children associated with the major economic and social changes that followed the dismantlement of the Soviet Union.
authors.affiliation: CNRS, CERCEC, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Sophie A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Hohmann
authors.affiliation: Université Paris Descartes, UMR CEPED, PRES Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France ; INED, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Cécile A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Lefèvre
authors.affiliation: Institut Pasteur, Epidémiologie des Maladies Emergentes, Paris, France ; IRD, UMI Résiliences, Bondy, France ; Medical Research Council/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
authors.forename: Michel L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Garenne
keywords: Southern Caucasus; demand for children; sex-preference; sex-screening methods; sex-selective abortion; value of children