Legal threat forces Google, Microsoft to pull India gender selection ads

India’s Supreme Court had last month asked the two companies plus Yahoo to respond to a complaint that they were illegally advertising do-it-yourself kits and expensive genetic techniques to find out an unborn baby’s gender. Activists said the products - which have not been scientifically proven to be accurate or safe - damage efforts to stem mass abortions of girls because of a traditional preference for boys in India.

“Sponsored links in Google have come down considerably. They have disappeared from Microsoft India search,” activist Sabu George, who filed the petition, told AFP. A random search for “gender selection” on Yahoo, however, produces links to resources and clinics offering to help people choose the gender of their child. Yahoo India was not immediately available for comment.

There are 927 females for every 1,000 males in India compared to the worldwide average of 1,050 females. The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says India loses 7,000 girls daily through abortion. Google said it will “review the petition carefully.” “In India, we do not allow ads for the promotion of pre-natal gender determination or pre-conception sex selection. We take local laws extremely seriously,” the company said in a statement.

India - the world’s second most populous country - has the highest number of births, with 27 million children born every year, making it a lucrative market for gender selection products. “As of now, not a single product has been scientifically proven but they will become accurate sooner than later,” said Puneet Bedi, a gynaecology consultant at New Delhi’s Apollo hospital.

“Eventually, they will be misused for sex determination,” Bedi told AFP. Most Indians prefer sons, who are typically regarded as breadwinners, while girls are seen as a burden because of the matrimonial dowry demanded by a groom’s family and the fact that their earnings go to their husband’s family.