It’s not uncommon for families in China to hope their next offspring is a boy—and if the ultrasound says otherwise to abort the baby. However, would-be parents in the United States are doing their own gender manipulation. Early gender screening allows moms and dads to some extent to choose the sex of their babies early in the pregnancy. While such procedures have been outlawed in many other countries, including Canada and the United Kingdom, they’re still legal in the United States. Although the procedure costs about $18,000, as many as 6,000 of them are performed each year. Statistics aren’t available as to what gender American families typically prefer, but Slate suggests that anecdotally stateside parents probably opt for females. On Google, a search for “how to have a girl” is three times more popular than “how to have a boy.” (Fox News)