So my hubby read this article the other day on the Drudge Report. It was odd, because I swear when I was pregnant with the monkey I had googled how to find out my son’s sex early, and ran across something about blood tests as early as 8 weeks, so when he mentioned this to me just now, I started the google…and, what I found is like the article mentions it’s not really part of the US practice, but I found all these old studies from 2003… so then I googled if any clinics have it and here are two: offering Sexagem Fetal and Pro Clinco. And from a Brazilian blog it’s like R$380 so not cheap… or cheap depending on how your categorize Brazilian expenses.
From Dona-Barriga's blog
Which made me think, I have to friend one at 15 weeks and one at 24 weeks who just found out the sex of their babies. And the whole reason that they had to wait that long was because the US is worried that by allowing you to discover the sex of your baby early, people may get abortions.
Literally, I lay in bed last night thinking about this.
In the US where abortions are completely legal, and where fetuses are not considered to be alive until birth, finding out the sex of the fetus early (and there are real medical reasons why this would matter, not just what color the baby’s room will be painted), is not something that we Americans feel we should allow. How does that make sense?
But then I got to thinking, Brazil is a VERY religious country, are abortions in Brazil even legal?? And according to Wikipedia.. yeah, yeah I know it’s not the law.. they’re not really legal unless the mother’s life is in danger or it was rape. Per Wikipedia Brazilians don’t seem even close to wanting to legalize it.
A March 2007 Datafolha/Folha de S. Paulo poll found that 65% of Brazilians believe that their country’s current law “should not be modified”, 16% that it should be expanded “to allow abortion in other cases”, 10% that abortion should be “decriminalized”, and 5% were “not sure”
Which brings me back to my original thought. We all know even with abortions being illegal in Brazil they happen, so if the whole point of the US saying they don’t want people to find out the sex of the babies is because it could increase abortions, wouldn’t that same/similar logic apply to Brazil? I would think they don’t want people going out and getting illegal abortions.
Personally, I think people, even people who are okay with abortions, take issue with choosing to abort a baby if it’s one sex even if you would keep it if it were another. When you get into the waters of picking babies’ sex or other attributes, I guess you get into a whole different bucket of ethics as well. Thus why the US still hasn’t fully allowed this type of testing. Heck in China a test like this could have saved lives… or would have… back in the day… before there were tens of millions of single men.
Either way, this is one time where I’m going to have to say I like Brazil’s way of thinking about medicine better than the US’…but just one 😉
O Jeito Brasileiro 
I agree. The logic doesn’t make sense. Especially if the U.S. is not a country that is culturally or economically driven to have a national preference for one gender. I looked into this test when I was pregnant, and I read a lot of report about how is was a scam. Yet, as you’ve mentioned, it is very popular in Brazil and all my sister-in-laws have had it done. However, I believe the motivation here is to be able to take a trip to the U.S. early enough to buy baby supplies, or request supplies from traveling relatives (such as myself) 🙂
I read the same report back when I was pregnant and thought the same, it was a scam, so was surprised when my hubby mentioned the article, or when I saw that it really is kind of popular here. You are hilarious but sooo true, baby supplies are crazy expensive here.
I don’t think this is really all about abortion (and besides, there are other reports that don’t exactly jive with that wikipedia reference). I think there are other cultural issues at play here, too. I have plenty of friends from the US, Canada and Europe who have no desire to find out the sex of their babies because they want to be surprised, and I totally get that. My mom had no idea what sex my brother and I would be because ultrasounds back then were only done in case a medical condition was suspected. However, ALL my Brazilian momma friends would have never dreamt of not finding out ASAP–that’s why this test is so popular. I had an American friend who was pregnant in Brazil and the first question was always “boy or girl?”, and when she replied that she didn’t know, people would get a look of horror on their faces since there must be some horrible medical reason why the doctors just couldn’t figure it out yet! 🙂 I’ve also noticed this with naming. I know plenty of people who won’t reveal their baby’s name until after birth, but all my Brazilian friends talk about Caio or Teresa right away.
American’s are definitely more private about telling everyone the sex and the names of their babies. I have known a few people who didn’t want to know the sex and others who did. But I do think there is something being said for the fact that baby items are much more expensive here, and there seem to be fewer unisex items, so not knowing the sex puts a baby at a disadvantage. Also, American’s seem to be really big on the ‘I want my kid to be unique’ and have a unique name thing going right now. Versus Brasil which doesn’t seem so interested in giving their child a one of a kind name.
why do some people who won’t reveal their baby’s name until after birth? i dont understand that…why not call the baby before birth by his/her name?
A lot of people are not too sure of the name, and spend 9 months trying to figure out out… Others don’t want people to complain about it. American’s are kind of rude with the baby names, and people will try and persuade you to name the baby something else if you tell them before it’s born. I’ve met a lot of Brazilians who are named after saints or family members here, so I don’t think people feel they can tell you it’s a bad name if it’s after a family member or a saint. 🙂 But a lot of people feel they need to see the baby and then know if the name is right, even though they may know the name.