Birth Spacing and Fertility in the Presence of Son Preference and Sex-Selective Abortions: India's Experience Over Four Decades

Abstract

Abstract Since the advent of prenatal sex-determination technologies in the mid-1980s, India has experienced an increasingly male-biased sex ratio at birth, presumably from sex-selective abortions. Abortions lengthen birth intervals, but we know little about how birth spacing has changed or the effects of these changes. I show that, although the overall length of birth intervals increased from 1970 to the mid-2010s, well-educated women with no sons had the most substantial lengthening, as well as the most male-biased sex ratios. Furthermore, most of these changes took place immediately after the introduction of prenatal sex-determination technologies. Consequently, some women without sons now have longer birth intervals than those with sons, reversing India's traditional spacing pattern. Women with low education continue short birth spacing when they have no sons, with only limited evidence of male-biased sex ratios. Because of the rapid lengthening of birth intervals, period fertility rates substantially overestimated how fast cohort fertility fell. Moreover, predicted cohort fertility is still 10%–20% above the period fertility rate. If the lengthening of birth intervals arises from repeated abortions, the associated short pregnancy spacing may counteract any positive effects of longer birth spacing. There is, however, no evidence of this effect on infant mortality. Judging from sex ratios, sex-selective abortion use is not declining.