Feticide or foeticide is an act that causes the death of a fetus. In a legal context, "child destruction" refers to the incidental killing of a fetus due to a criminal human act, such as a blow to the abdomen of a pregnant woman. As a medical term, feticide is destruction of a fetus, for example as the first phase of a legal induced abortion. Feticide does not refer to the death of a fetus from entirely natural causes, such as the miscarriage of a pregnancy.
Female Foeticide is still a problem in 21st century India. It still continues to be unabated in parts of India. Modern technology combined with a cultural preference for sons rather than daughters. India where parents can check the sex of their unborn child. In some parts of the country parents are choosing to abort if the child is female.
The declining gender ratio in the states of Punjab, Haryana and the capital Delhi have led to crackdowns by the government on such clinics.
