Millions of "Missing Women" Lead to Social Instability

As many as 10 million female fetuses may have been aborted in India over the past 20 years according to a study in Lancet, the British medical journal.

India's lost daughters: Abortion toll in millions.

You can point to the cultural preference for males to secure a heir, the cost of raising a daughter who will eventually belong to her husband's family, and the very expensive cost of a dowry.

Yet, before ultrasound allowed the prenatal determination of sex, abortions were rare.

We are beginning to see the social costs of skewed gender ratios in China where the one-child policy has resulted in an estimated 40 million bachelors who can not find wives.  It's not pretty.

One Chinese official said in Facing the Future with 40 million bachelors
China faces a future of crime and instability as a generation of 40 million men is left frustrated by a lack of brides, thanks to the practice of selective abortion of female foetuses, a population official has warned.

Men left on the shelf would resort to prostitutes or pay huge prices for brides, while trafficking in women and girls kidnapped from rural areas and other countries would increase.
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"Such serious gender disproportion poses a major threat to the healthy, harmonious and sustainable growth of the nation's population and would trigger such crimes and social problems as mercenary marriage, abduction of women and prostitution."

A UN official said the shortage of woman is creating a "huge societal issue", one of the three biggest challenges facing China along with HIV/AIDS and environmental degradation.

Young males who can't find wives are "low status" and prone to improve their situation through violent and criminal behavior.
The growing crime rate in China which is being linked to China's massive "floating" or transient population, some 80 million of which are low-status males

China is beginning to promote the Girl Care Project  while India plans to set up a series of orphanages to raise unwanted baby girls.

India To Raise Girls in Bid to Slow Abortions

Here in America, our culture has profoundly changed in the past 25 years.  The psychoanalyst Shrinkwrapped writes about the psychic costs on individuals and society in Reverberations and Vicissitudes of Abortion.

Part 1  Introduction
Part 2  Mothers and Fathers: When Does Life Begin?
Part 3  Children of Choice
The idea that  your parents have parents decided to abort a potential sibling is a significant issue, made more so when done in a perfunctory manner as a matter of course. Such a "choice" unavoidably conveys the message that a child’s life is hostage to the parent’s desires.
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Children who experience themselves as commodities whose existence serves the needs of others, have a natural tendency to treat themselves and others as mere "need satisfying objects."

To realize just how far we've come, read Katherine in the comments to Part 3.