LONDON, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Women in Britain are seeking abortions based on sex selection, a former medical director of the country's largest abortion provider said.
Dr. Vincent Argent, who worked for the British Pregnancy Advisory Service and is now is in private practice, said he had "no doubt" women sought abortions based only on the fetus' sex and he believed the practice was "fairly widespread," The Daily Telegraph reported Saturday.
The Daily Telegraph reported during the week about three doctors who provided the illegal abortions for women for this reason.
Argent said there were "an awful lot of covert abortions for sex selection going on" after the women learned about the fetus' sex then asked for the procedure without telling the doctor the real reason.
Argent said he believed some of his colleagues arranged abortions based on the fetus' gender because they thought it was reasonable to do so for cultural reasons.
"I've had a consultant colleague in the North who expressed a view, that consultant was from an ethnic minority … [that he] didn't think it was ethically wrong because he thought that the cultural reason why some communities may prefer to have four male babies is as good a reason as the, if you like, the Anglo-Saxon cultural view, 'Well I'm pregnant, I just don't want it anyway,'" Argent said.
After the Telegraph article, the London Metropolitan Police said it began an investigation.
