Planning commission targets fetal sex checks

China's National Health and Family Planning Commission plans to launch a regulation that fines any individuals or organizations involved in tests to determine the sex of a fetus or that carry out abortion for non-medical purposes.

The draft of the regulation, which was released on Tuesday, stipulates that such individuals or organizations will be fined an amount between 5,000 yuan ($814) and 30,000 yuan and will be legally responsible.

The draft aims to help maintain a proper gender balance among newborns and is open for public opinion till October 2.

According to the sixth nationwide population census in 2011, 51.27 percent of the country's population is male, a result brought about largely thanks to Chinese tradition's tendency to favor boys over girls, a tendency still prevalent in many rural regions.

This is not the first regulation forbidding gender-related tests on fetus and abortions. In 2007, the State Council released a guideline forbidding such tests.

Previous media reports pointed out that for years clinics across the country have profited by conducting illicit ultrasound tests on pregnant women who wanted to pre-screen the sex of their babies.

Earlier this year, police in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, busted seven cases of illegally testing for the gender of fetuses in a campaign. Two people were arrested while 17 other people were detained, said the local government.