Paper long abstract:

In Asian societies with a strong preference for sons, sex selection is a huge problem and has been practiced for decades: couples are using modern technologies to identify the sex of fetuses, followed by abortion of girls. There is strong evidence that it also occurs in some of the Post Soviet countries like Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

Prenatal sex selection, a phenomenon which finds its roots in a culture of gender inequality and reinforces a climate of violence against women, has harmful consequences, including population imbalances, a rise in violence and criminality.

The paper explores what were the policies and how journalists and media report about those policies in Soviet and post- Soviet era. Paper compares the policies of women emancipation and abortion legalization/criminalization fashioned by Lenin, Stalin, Khruschev and other post-Soviet leaders. The study will compare how these policies were covered by media during the Soviet and current times - what are the features, differences and simmilarities.

Study provide recommendations for journalists and policy makers to resolve the social, economic, and ethical dillemas they are approaching in this regards.