Government says clampdown is aimed at improving women’s reproductive health, but it comes amid anxiety about the nation’s falling birth rate

China has already enacted strict measures aimed at preventing sex-selective abortions, and health authorities also warned in 2018 that the use of abortion to end unwanted pregnancies was harmful to women’s bodies and risked causing infertility.

The state council said the new guidelines, issued on Monday, would aim to improve women’s overall access to pre-pregnancy healthcare services.

  • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Guess it's time to twist ourselves into knots to explain how restricting women's reproductive rights is suddenly a good thing :yea:

      • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]
        ·
        3 years ago

        The drift towards more limits on abortion has been under way for several years. Jiangxi province issued guidelines in 2018 stipulating that women more than 14 weeks pregnant must have signed approval from three medical professionals before having a termination.

        Guess we can just downplay and minimize the issue too, that works :yea:

        China doing a bad thing is whatever, doesn't affect me, but internet leftists defending bad things because China's doing them makes me feel like my only options are uncritical support or uncritical opposition, at which point I will say, "Screw all y'all."

          • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]
            ·
            3 years ago

            This isn't official policy but rather a statement of goals. It's perfectly reasonable to have concerns that further legal restrictions on abortion may be coming, and the recent implementation of restrictions in a province seems pretty fucking relevant in that context of understanding how the government will approach the issue.

              • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]
                ·
                3 years ago

                happens previously

                "Why are you bringing up something from three years ago?"

                signs that it may be happening again

                "I'm gonna wait until it actually happens before I criticize anything"

                There is a five minute window immediately after China does something bad in which you are allowed to be critical of them.

                  • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]
                    ·
                    3 years ago

                    There are pretty clear signs that more restrictions may be coming. China does have a history of meddling in the reproductive affairs of its people, so if they start talking about abortion being bad, it's reasonable to expect them to approach the issue with a heavy hand. You don't have to criticize them but I'd appreciate it if you didn't dismiss other people's concerns and criticism. If nothing else it's shitty optics.

        • panopticon [comrade/them]
          ·
          3 years ago

          If that's all it takes for you to default to western chauvinism then it sounds like your mind is already made up

          • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]
            ·
            3 years ago

            Yep, I am a "Western chauvinist," because I hold values like "restricting abortion is bad" or "banning femboys is bad" even when China does it. In order to not be a "Western chauvinist" I would have to hold no actual values or principles and just let my beliefs sway with the wind depending on whatever China does.

            Of course, the fact that I support China does not have any bearing on this.

              • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]
                ·
                3 years ago

                The drift towards more limits on abortion has been under way for several years. Jiangxi province issued guidelines in 2018 stipulating that women more than 14 weeks pregnant must have signed approval from three medical professionals before having a termination.

                  • Dinkdink [none/use name]
                    ·
                    3 years ago

                    Jiangxi is one of the good provinces, though. Coastal, developed. The New York State of China. If it were one of the hick Alabama provinces that would be another thing, but it's not.

            • panopticon [comrade/them]
              ·
              3 years ago

              No like I said I get that your mind is already made up, i don't care enough to struggle session with you about this.

              Frankly you're right that your opinion of the internal affairs of a sovereign country is mostly irrelevant and definitely not germane to anything substantial, what really matters is whether or not you're contributing to the intentional campaign to demonize and isolate that country.

              I.e. what narratives you're helping to propagate, among the social context you're surrounded with.

              Anyway buddy, you do you :yea:

    • LeninWeave [none/use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Love to wait until after the article is already debunked in the comments to make my anti-China post. :big-cool:

          • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]
            ·
            3 years ago

            Ok and? There's literally nothing in that comment debunking any part of the article.

              • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]
                ·
                3 years ago

                All the replies show is that the article included biased language and framing, not factual inaccuracies.

                • LeninWeave [none/use name]
                  ·
                  3 years ago

                  And someone in the comments stated that if you look at the actual document, the context of reducing non-medical abortions is that they’re going to be improving sex education and access to medical care and contraceptives to reduce the number of people who need these abortions in the first place.

                  So it's not a limit on abortions. Didn't need to go past the headline to find the lie.

                  Edit: also, lol at "it's not a lie, only the language and framing are dishonest".

                  • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]
                    ·
                    3 years ago

                    It's unclear what measures are actually going to be taken. It is reasonable to speculate that the government may implement more restrictions, given that it's happened before.

                    Edit: also, lol at “it’s not a lie, only the language and framing are dishonest”.

                    The fact that it's framing things about China in a negative way doesn't mean that what China's doing isn't bad.

                    • LeninWeave [none/use name]
                      ·
                      3 years ago

                      OK, so there's no evidence as of now that what China is doing is bad, but you assume that they will do bad things in the future. Even if you end up being right, that's ridiculous. I think I'm done here.

                        • LeninWeave [none/use name]
                          ·
                          3 years ago

                          Guess it's time to twist ourselves into knots to explain how restricting women's reproductive rights is suddenly a good thing :yea:

                          This is the opposite of "not assuming".

                          • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]
                            ·
                            3 years ago

                            It's not assuming anything, China already has some restrictions on women's reproductive rights.

                            • LeninWeave [none/use name]
                              ·
                              3 years ago

                              I simply would not conflate a specific law in one region of China with potential national policy on the comments of a dishonest article that contains little to no evidence.

                              Seems like you're reaching for reasons to criticize China and getting angry at everyone else who isn't. As seen in this thread, it's reasonable and good to be skeptical of these articles.

                              In any case, I have family to spend time with so I won't reply further. Have a good day.

    • berrytopylus [she/her,they/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      People seem incapable of recognizing that China is at the end of the day just a country and not a perfect paradise. There's lots of things they do much better and lots of things they'll do worse, that's how humans are.

      Sure maybe this is just an intentional misreading of Chinese policy, US Media tends to be dishonest about it but even if it isn't that doesn't make "china bad" suddenly, it just confirms "China is place like everywhere else"

      However I do agree at this point we should probably wait and see what this leads to, since right now it's mostly just a stated intent.

      • Dinkdink [none/use name]
        ·
        3 years ago

        It's to increase the number of babies born. China's one child policy worked exactly as it was supposed to and now there's not enough young people to pay for all the old people's pensions. In a few decades something like 1/3 of China will be elderly. This is a disaster for an economy. You need lots of young people who spend, spend, spend. Old people collect retirement pay and do nothing for the economy.

    • mittens [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Why. Since when is China free of contradiction?

      • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]
        ·
        3 years ago

        It isn't, but some people have idealized pictures of China, and if they ever admit that something China does is bad then it might shatter the illusion. If you have a more grounded view then it's no problem to defend them overall while criticizing specific policies.