Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A UN researcher says the prevalence of abortion and infanticide targeting girls ahas caused a gender imbalance that has resulted in 200 million fewer women than there should be worldwide. The researcher says the girls are "missing" because of a practice he calls "gendercide."

Theodor Winkler, head of a research center that directed the project, says the number of missing girls is based on the normal birthrate of males and females and the expected gender balance in the worldwide population.

According to a Reuters report, Winkler told a UN press conference Thursday that sex-selection abortions and infanticides were the primary cause of the imbalance, which has resulted in increasing problems with sex trafficking.

“We are confronted with the slaughter of Eve, a systematic gendercide of tragic proportions,” Winkler wrote in the study and recently published as a book titled Women in an Insecure World.

“There are dozens of ways women come to a grisly end,” Winkler told UN reporters. “Obviously, human rights and the legal protection of women is of crucial importance but it is only one component. There is also a cultural change that must operate.”

“It starts in the womb. There are societies where male births are preferred, particularly if the number of births are limited. That's where abortion for gender reasons starts,” he said.

Winkler also said, according to Reuters, that violence against women is the fourth leading cause of premature death internationally.

Winkler also relies on UN figures, World Heath Organization and government reports and photos to assemble his report and will be distributed to governments, academics and international health officials.