China’s family planning agency says it will ‘intervene’ in abortions for unmarried women, teens

China’s family planning agency says it will “intervene” when unmarried women and teenagers seek abortions and promote traditional values to encourage people to have more children, as it tries to reverse declining birth rates.

In a plan outlining key initiatives for the year, the China Family Planning Association said the intervention to reduce the number of abortions was to “improve reproductive health”. It said a task force would be set up for education and communication projects in this area, but no further details were given.

The plan, released in late January, also calls for a pilot public health programmes to encourage Chinese to have more than one child.

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It comes after Beijing relaxed the rules in May last year, allowing couples to have up to three children in a major policy shift.

China is grappling with the challenges of an ageing population, and its declining birth rate had prompted Beijing to end its decades-old one-child policy in 2016. Births have continued to fall since then, reaching a record low of 12 million in 2020.

Many young Chinese are deterred from having more children by the costs and pressure of raising them, along with concerns over a lack of childcare support and access to medical care during the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to its plan, the association aims to tackle the problem through efforts to foster a “positive” family culture of marriage and multiple children. It aims to do this with education programmes, providing better prenatal and postnatal care, encouraging both parents to share childcare responsibility, and stamping out the traditional practice of grooms paying hefty “bride prices”.

The education programmes would also emphasise traditional family values and community care for vulnerable elderly people.

It is unclear how the agency plans to “intervene” on abortions, but a Shenzhen-based gynaecologist, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, said the hospital where she worked had not received any new policy directive to halt abortions for unmarried women.

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Chen Yaya, a feminist scholar and researcher with the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said the plan appeared to be aimed at improving women’s long-term reproductive health and reducing unintended pregnancies and abortions.

But she said care was needed when implementing the measures. “Otherwise ... they could end up stigmatising young women who have to get an abortion – and that could put them in a more vulnerable position than is necessary,” Chen said.

“More resources are needed to strengthen general sex education and teaching, especially for men to respect and understand women,” she added.

Chen also called on the association to put more resources into supporting family diversity, including supporting single, unmarried women having children.

Wang Yaqiu, a senior researcher on China at Human Rights Watch, said while it was unclear how the plan would be implemented, there was potential for abuse – noting that forced abortions were carried out across China for decades under the one-child policy.

“What is clear from the document is that the Chinese government is encouraging births and trying to reduce abortions,” Wang said. “Given its history of restricting women’s reproductive rights and bodily autonomy through abusive means ... [these measures are] certainly a cause for concern.”

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