The government has also committed to making fertility treatments more widely accessible to married women by integrating reproductive technology into the country’s health system. In China, single women are not allowed to freeze their eggs and undergo in vitro fertilization, and are routinely denied the care and services available to married women.
It is the aftermath of the “one-child policy,” which was used from 1979 to 2015 to bring down the birth rate during the population boom. Abortion, which is legal in China, has played a role in compliance with this policy.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, China has one of the highest abortion rates in the world. From 2015 to 2019, the country recorded 40.2 million pregnancies annually. Of these, 23.2 million were unintended pregnancies and 17.7 million ended in abortions. The data show that about 78% of unwanted pregnancies in China end in abortion. The global average of unintended pregnancies leading to abortion is 61%.
The importance of passing on surnames and a preference for sons also contribute to China’s abortion rate, which skews the country’s population by gender. The 2021 census showed that there are 35 million more men than women in the country.
In 2016, the Chinese government changed its policy to allow couples to have two children. In 2021, that number has increased to three. Despite these changes, however, recent birth data released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics show a “swan plummeting” in births since 2016, suggesting that the government is giving more to families. It shows the paradox of China at the time, which gave it flexibility.
China’s low fertility rate has led to an inevitable increase in the proportion of elderly people in the population. Demographic data collected by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs show that the country is expected to shrink in 2025.
Tuesday’s proposal will provide women with an enhanced “active birth support system” and improve services to promote “long-term” and “balanced” growth of the country’s population.
This is not the first time China has introduced incentives for couples to have children. Authorities are proposing tax cuts, extended maternity leave, improved health insurance and financial support for families with three children, according to Reuters. Tuesday’s announcement echoes a 2021 proposal to limit abortion under the guise of promoting gender equality.
Last year, the Chinese government issued a policy memo to improve women’s rights over the next decade. This included provisions to increase women’s access to education and employment. Under the section on reproductive health, the agency wrote, women would receive guidance on navigating the health care system, including access to contraception. The memo emphasized the need to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies.
