Taiwan's health authorities issued an order calling all doctors to refrain from telling a pregnant woman the sex of her child during early stages of pregnancy when abortion is still an option, media reported Friday.
The move is aimed at addressing a growing gender imbalance among newborns in Taiwan.
With Chinese culture giving preference to boys over girls to carry on the family name and provide care for ageing parents, statistics indicated some Taiwan parents are choosing abortions after they find out their babies are girls.
Although the problem in Taiwan is not as serious as in China, where 1.18 boys are born for every girl, a Taiwan government report released in early December estimated there are 3 000 missing newborn girls each year on the island.
The latest newborn ratio from November stood at 1.075 boys to one girl, according to the Department of Health.
Health authorities banned gender-selective abortions in January. They are now taking a further step by keeping gender information from would-be parents.
"We are relying on our doctors to use their discretion to implement this," Lee Tsui-feng, an official at the Bureau of National Health Promotion, said Friday. "Obviously, if a mother is eight months pregnant and wants to know, that is OK."
Lee said the central government would not penalize doctors if they do tell at early stages, mostly because there is no way to comprehensively monitor what doctors say during checkups. But she said she hopes hospitals and doctors would self-enforce the rule.
"We don't think this affects the freedom of information for parents because many countries with similar problems are already doing this," she said.
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