China will step up enforcement of laws against sex-selection abortion

On a day when hundreds of thousands of Americans are lining the streets of Washington to protest 34 years of legalized abortion, China's political leaders say they will do more to stop sex-selection abortions there and to correct a growing gender imbalance that its one-child family planning program has yielded.

The official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported on Monday that the government will increase enforcement of laws designed to prohibit the use of ultrasounds to determine the sex of an unborn child.

Xinhua says the Central Committee of the ruling Communist Party and the State Council, or cabinet, has issued a new document saying anyone running afoul of the gender identification laws should face "serious punishment."