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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Millions of girls go ‘missing’ as a medical procedure takes hold

The advent of sex-selective abortion has ushered in changes in the sex ratio of newborns.
A nursing worker takes care of new-born babies at a hospital in China

Newborn babies snuggle together at a hospital in China. More girls have gone missing over the past half-century in this nation than in any other country. Credit: VCG/Getty

Some 45 million girls worldwide were never born because of the use of sex-selective abortions during the past half-century.

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Nature 568, 437 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01225-3

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