India plans to implement a pregnancy registry to help reduce gender-based abortions and infanticides, the BBC World Service reported this morning. You can read the story at Reuters India.

Listening to the story on the radio this morning, I have to admit that the notion of government registered pregnancies struck me as pretty draconian. But apparently previous laws banning sex determination did not lower the abortion and infanticide of girls as much as was hoped. The government said that some 10 million girls have been aborted or killed by their parents in the past 20 years.

While some say pregnancy registration is unrealistic, the measure has invigorated discussions about the nation's attitudes toward girls, infant mortality and pre- and post-natal care for poor and rural women. And certainly nothing but good can come from such discussions.