#Unwanted – Campaign against prenatal sex selection

#Unwanted – Campaign against prenatal sex selection

We live in a country which valorizes boys more than girls.

Because of that Montenegro is facing a huge social problem of prenatal sex selection, which has already damaged the natural ratio of newborn boys and girls. According to the data from the Statistical office of Montenegro, in the last twenty years the annual ratio is 109 boys on average to 100 girls. Only in 2009, 113 boys were born to 100 girls. Three thousand women in the reproductive age are already missing in Montenegro, and the projections are that in less than 20 years, there will be 8,000 less women than men.

This situation, according to the UN Population fund, puts Montenegro alongside Albania, Azerbaijan and Armenia on the top of the list of countries with greatest imbalance of male and female children.

The root of this issue lies in Montenegrin patriarchal tradition which prefers a “male heir”. It’s about a deeply entrenched discrimination which starts before giving birth, and it manifests through unequal position of girls and women in all spheres of life. Consequences of this problem are the misuse of prenatal tests and sex selective abortions, but also other social implications such as growth of violence, organized crime, conflicts etc.

Wanting to make our society better for both our girls and boys, NGO Women’s Rights Center in cooperation with the agency McCann initiated a volunteer campaign #Unwanted, which aimed to invite citizens and competent institutions to react on such serious problems, to change patriarchal attitudes on women and men, and to sign the petition aiming to prevent the misuse of early prenatal test for the purpose of sex selective abortions.

This initiative is directed to change the afore mentioned system of values and to stamp out the misuse of prenatal tests and selective abortions as drastic examples of gender discrimination, with full respect of all reproductive, legally guaranteed, women’s rights.