Thank the Lord for Little Girls

In India ultrasounds are illegal to determine a baby's gender. So noone here knows what they are going to have prior to delivery. I haven't read up on the subject (which I probably should do before blogging about it) but this is what I gather...
The government strongly encourages couples to limit there family size to 2 children for conservation purposes. (Another reason our family of five is a freakshow here:) Gender identification is illegal so that parents will not abort the baby if they find out it's a girl. I've seen ads saying that girls are just as important as boys. I'm assuming the reasoning is that if you only get to have 2, the desire is to have boys to carry on the family name, support you when you're old (the eldest son is automatically responsible for this) and to not have to pay a huge wedding dowry (which is also supposed to be illegal but still exists). Really sad.
It was a shock to me when I saw signs posted at different clinics and hospitals about illegal ultrasounds. Mainly b/c in the states most people are happy no matter what gender they are having and it's fun to find out ahead of time (for some:). I definitely don't know the extent of the problem...i'm assuming that since there are plenty of girls here that most people are happy with either gender as well. But it is such a good thing they are protecting little girls. (This is also another reason it is much easier to adopt girls here.)
They do use ultrasounds for preventative care.