The health secretary, Andrew Lansley, has asked officials to look into claims that some doctors are granting women illegal abortions based solely on the sex of their unborn baby.

The Department of Health launched an inquiry following a newspaper investigation into sex-selection terminations, where secret footage was taken of consultants at British clinics agreeing to abort foetuses because a baby of that gender was not wanted.

Undercover reporters accompanied pregnant women to nine clinics in different parts of the country, according to the Daily Telegraph.

In three cases doctors were recorded offering to arrange terminations despite being told the reason the women did not want to go ahead with the pregnancy was their baby's gender. The newspaper also claims the clinicians admitted they were prepared to falsify paperwork to arrange the illegal abortions.

The health secretary said he was "extremely concerned" to hear about the allegations. "Sex selection is illegal and is morally wrong," he said.

"I've asked my officials to investigate this as a matter of urgency."

Campaigners on both side of the abortion debate condemned the findings.

Anthony Ozimic, communications manager of anti-abortion organisation the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said sex-selective abortions were "inevitable" due to easy access to terminations.

"This investigation confirms the reality of eugenics in modern British medicine, in which some innocent human beings are deemed too inconvenient to be allowed to live," he said.

But Darinka Aleksic, campaign co-ordinator for Abortion Rights, said the criminal practice of a minority should not be used to impose tighter restrictions.

"If it is the case that a doctor has been found to be conducting sex-selective abortions for anything other medical purposes, then they are breaking the law and should be investigated.

"It is absolutely vital that abortion providers adhere stringently to both legal requirements and professional guidelines, so that the public has confidence in the system. But the fact is, abortion is heavily regulated and strictly licensed in this country.

"No doubt anti-choice MPs and campaigners will use these allegations as an excuse to push for ever greater restriction of abortion. It is no surprise this has surfaced at a time when anti-choice politicians are trying to introduce new abortion counselling requirements."

A study by Oxford University in 2007 suggested Indian women in the UK were aborting unborn daughters so they could have more boys.

But the Telegraph said the women who accompanied its reporters to consultations were from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. One consultant in Manchester was filmed telling a woman who said she wanted to abort a female foetus: "I don't ask questions. If you want a termination, you want a termination."

Another doctor in a central London practice allegedly agreed to arrange for a woman to abort a boy after being told that she and her husband already had a son from his first marriage.

Resources: Clinics granting sex-selection abortions to be investigated by health officials

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