By Emma Petrosyan

Roza Matchkalyan, a gynecologist at the Alaverdi Medical Center in Armenia, says she’s opposed to artificial pregnancy terminations based on sex preferences.

The physician, who also heads the center’s consultations unit, says that the number of pregnant women seeking advice has increased by forty monthly as compared to last year. She also says that births have risen by 25.

Matchkalyan also claims that the number of artificially induced births at home has decreased due to new laws prohibiting the sale of such drugs without a doctor’s prescription.

“At one time, abortions had decreased but induced miscarriages shot up. In the past two months, these have decreased as well,” she noted. “We can state that the law is working and that women are now more interested in family planning.”

She says that women do not come to the medical center for artificially induced terminations because they know that such procedures are not offered.

Matchkalyan believes that men are more inclined to terminate a birth if it’s a girl. “A woman would never take such a step unless prompted by the father,” she says, adding that men prefer a male child to keep the family name going.

Marousya Ohanyan, a resident of the village of Hagvi, says that a boy is better for a father, because he’ll grow up like a brother to him, while moms want girls who will grow up to become little sisters.

“When I got married and was pregnant, I wanted to have a girl. But it was a boy,” says Ohanyan, noting that village families still have several children.

Hasmik Paranyan, from the village of Karindj, says that the older girls take care of the little ones and that she couldn’t get any work done otherwise.

Alaverdi resident Sousanna Danielyan, a mother of seven, recounts that her relatives started to get worried after she gave birth to three girls in a row, thinking she’ never have a boy.

“They took it kind of hard, and that’s the only reason I wanted a boy. It was the same to me. Certain things are just out of your hands,” says Danielyan.

Her husband Vitaly Grigoryan, like most Armenian men, wanted their firstborn to be a boy.

“Having three girls in succession was a bit tough. But then we had four boys in a row. We understood that was the way it had to be,” says Vitaly.

He went on to say that they had found out beforehand what the sex of the fourth child was to be, but even if it had been a girl, they would have never terminated the pregnancy.

“Each individual born is unique. Physically some might look the same but their inner essence is different. When a pregnancy is terminated, that person can never be born again. Artificial terminations are murder.  What difference does it make if you kill a person inside or outside the womb,” says Vitaly.