abortion services in India if they are not available locally. These health care workers note feeling caught between respecting the law and ensuring that their patients receive safe health care services (Lamichhane et al. 2011).

Strict enforcement could also make medical practitioners reluctant to provide legal reproductive health services that require the use of restricted technology. Access to ultrasound scans for antenatal checks, and access to safe abortion for reasons other than sex-selective purposes could potentially be limited. The case of Korea illustrates how strict enforcements can restrict women’s access to legal health care services altogether. In 2010, the Korean government introduced an action plan to crack down on illegal abortions (arguably in a bid to raise the low birth rate in the country). The prosecution of the arrested doctors following this crackdown was widely publicized, and in response, many obstetricians reportedly became fearful of offering abortion services even for legal reasons (Korean Women’s Association United 2011).

Second, having unwanted girls could affect how the woman is treated in the household and in the community at large. In patrilineal societies, bearing a son matters for women as it allows them to improve their position within the household. For example, Li and Wu (2011) use pooled data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) and multi-variate regression to find that women whose first-borns were sons had more decision-making power, and better nutritional intake. More starkly, Milazzo (2014), using pooled data from the Indian National Family Health Survey (NFHS) and exploiting the randomness in the sex of the first-born child, finds that women whose firstborns were girls were more likely to suffer maternal and adult mortality. These studies are backed by the findings of ethnographic studies as well (DasGupta et al. 2003). In recognition of the lower status and heightened vulnerability of sonless women, the Chinese government in 2002, prohibited ill-treatment of women who give birth to girls or who are infertile (Li 2007).

There is also evidence to suggest that the adoption of ultrasound technology – a key innovation in helping those with son preference prenatally select the sex of their baby and avoid unwanted daughters – improves women’s welfare. Ebenstein et al. (2013) combine data from various Chinese surveys and the Local Chronicles, and exploit the timing of ultrasound diffusion across counties to find causal evidence that the adoption of ultrasound technology increases the probability of having a son at second parity, and this in turn leads to lower family size, an increase in labor market employment outside agriculture, an increase in intra-household bargaining power, and decrease in suicide rates for women in rural China. While we do not view such improvements in women’s welfare – that are conditional on having a male child – as related to improvements in women’s status overall, we do argue that ultrasound bans are likely to worsen women’s outcomes in the absence of interventions that change the intrinsic value of females.

Having a son improves a women’s circumstances during old-age too. For example, Cain (1986) draws on survey data from rural Bangladesh and India, and uses a correlation-based approach, to find that older women without sons in these contexts were at a higher risk of economic uncertainty and mortality. Similarly, Rahman et al. (1992) use data from the Matlab, Bangladesh and a discrete time hazard model (correlation-based approach) to find that women ages 45 or more who had an adult son living with them faced a lower mortality risk. Vlassoff (1990) finds similar results from descriptive survey data analysis for widowed women in a rural village in Maharashtra, India. In the absence of any other substitute, those women who would rely on sons for old-age security are likely to be worse off due to ultrasound bans.

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