In 2016, the country adopted regulations to curb this practice. Sex-selective abortion was explicitly outlawed in 2016.[15] However, even before 2016, sex-selective abortion was implicitly banned, since Armenia, ever since its legalization of abortion in 1955 under Soviet law, has always restricted abortion after the first trimester, when sex-selective abortions happen, the only thing that has changed several times throughout the years being the reasons laid down by the government in order for an abortion after 12 weeks to be approved.[2] Since sex-selection was never an approved legal reason, such abortions were always technically illegal.[16] As such, the 2016 law explicitly banning an abortion for reasons of sex-selection was seen as redundant and unenforceable, and it came with a major controversy: the requirement of a 3 days waiting period.[4] There has been concern that poor women from rural areas will not be able to afford to travel several times to cities to have safe abortions, thus increasing the rate of unsafe abortion in the country, especially given the high rate of abortion in general.[14] A criticism of Armenia's policies that deal with sex-selection is that they do not focus on the culture which sees women as inferior, and which fuels sex-selection due to the way girls are devalued.[17]