Last month, India’s Supreme Court asked the two companies, as well as Yahoo, to respond to a complaint that they were illegally advertising do-it-yourself home kits and expensive genetic techniques to find out an unborn baby’s gender.<\/p>\n
"Sponsored links in Google have come down considerably. They have disappeared from Microsoft India search," activist Sabu George, who filed the petition, told AFP.<\/p>\n
A random search for "gender selection" on Yahoo, however, throws up links to resources and clinics offering to help people choose the gender of their child.<\/p>\n
Yahoo India was not immediately available for comment.<\/p>\n
Activists argue that the products, which have not been scientifically proven to be accurate or safe, are damaging to their efforts to stem the mass abortion of girls because of a traditional preference for boys in India.<\/p>\n
There are 927 females for every 1,000 males in India compared to the worldwide average of 1,050 females. The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says India loses 7,000 girls daily through abortion.<\/p>\n
Google said it will "review the petition carefully."<\/p>\n
"In India, we do not allow ads for the promotion of pre-natal gender determination or pre-conception sex selection. We take local laws extremely seriously," the company said in an statement.<\/p>\n
In a similar legal row in Britain, Google agreed to change its policy on abortion-related advertisements by religious groups after a pro-life Christian group challenged the company in court for refusing its advert.<\/p>\n
"This is an important issue of free speech and religious liberty," the Christian Institute said in a statement on its website after the legal proceedings were "settled on amicable terms."<\/p>\n
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