A RED scarf stands for a girl while a blue one tells an expectant mother she will have a boy. The health-care supervision department of Futian District said it had recently caught a company that illegally revealed the gender of fetuses to expectant parents using 4-D ultrasound tests.

The law enforcement officers in June confiscated the ultrasound machine, a computer and brochures advertising the fetus photographing service. In addition, the authority gave a warning to and imposed an administrative fine of 20,000 yuan (US$2,929) on the company.

In China, it is against the law to disclose a fetus’ gender to anyone for nonmedical causes after the country implemented the one-child policy in late 1970s, so expectant mothers of girls cannot conduct abortions due to gender preference.

It is also prohibited for any individual or organization to terminate a pregnancy for nonmedical reasons in order to choose their baby’s gender.

Since the mid-1980s, some people have made profits by utilizing ultrasound technology to check a fetus’ gender, because a large number of people, especially those from rural areas, prefer a boy over a girl. Once a family finds out the fetus is a girl, they may terminate the pregnancy.

At first, staffers from the Futian company denied that they had offered such a service, but the chat records on the shop’s computer proved their illicit dealings.

According to screenshots of the chat records, some customers had consulted the company about testing their fetus’ gender via 4-D ultrasound technology. The cost of the service, including the blue or red-color present that represents the fetus’ gender, is 698 yuan.

(Zhang Qian)