NEW DELHI, INDIA (Catholic Online) - Many cultures tend to favor male children, however some with liberal -even mandatory abortion laws, face a terrible imbalance in the ratio between men and women. This is expectedly true in China, so much so that the government is finally considering a ban on its infamous One Child Policy.

However, such imbalances are unexpected in places where abortion is generally illegal. In this case, India, despite stronger-than-average pro-life laws, is facing a similar crisis. In the state of Haryana for example, the live-birth ratio is just 830 girls for every 1,000 boys.

The problem is cultural, combined with technology. Indian culture favors boys and new technology now allows parents to determine the sex of their baby before birth.  However, this determination is often a death sentence for many unborn girls. The cultural impulse to produce male children is so strong that women obtain illegal abortions, causing the imbalance.

Determining the sex of the child is illegal in India for this reason. Abortion is also illegal except in cases of danger to the mother's life, rape, babies with birth defects, and cases where the mother is under 18. While this still allows for a grim number of legal abortions, it's the illegal ones which target girls that are upsetting the social balance in India.

Lawmakers say the rules against sexing children before birth are not being enforced.

Government estimates say that 500,000 female babies are being murdered every year through these practices. UN estimates are worse, coming in at 2,000 per day.

No matter the estimate, the number of girls being murdered is staggering. It is a cultural war on women, yet unsurprisingly, abortion advocates are silent despite the fact they claim to advocate solely for women's rights.

For now, the government has a number of women's right issues that is needs to grapple with. From the epidemic of rape in the country to the occasional second-class status it affords women, India can never be a truly great nation until it recognizes the value and necessity of women in its society.

Women have done much to advance Indian society in the past and continue to serve the nation as politicians, doctors, lawyers, journalists, teachers, and more. These women deserve protection from conception until natural death.

As Indian women organize to demand change, it is expected that the government will begin addressing these issues within the next several months.

So far, no specific legal changes have been proposed to crack down on illegal abortion.

© 2013, Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.