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

    How exactly can you tell if someone who wants an abortion is getting it for sex-selective reasons?

    • NewAccountWhoDis [she/her]
      ·
      3 years ago

      This is the same question we ask of many laws dealing with motives and intent. Yes some will slip by and I think that's perfectly fine we should lean on the side of allowing abortions over not, but there's also going to be plenty of cases where people make it clear exactly what they're doing it for.

      You can also mitigate this through regulations that say block telling the patient about the gender or genetic makeup of a child and so after a certain period for instance.

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

        The reason sex-selective abortions are an issue in the first place is because of the government interfering with reproductive freedom. I don't think the government needs to take an active role in making sure women are only having abortions for the "right" reasons.

        • NewAccountWhoDis [she/her]
          ·
          3 years ago

          The reason sex-selective abortions are an issue in the first place is because of the government interfering with reproductive freedom

          That's not why at all, it's because China, like every country in the entire world, still struggles with huge misogyny issues both traditionally and in modern culture. Having a girl is just culturally less worth it, especially for families who stand even more by their traditional values.

          The one child policy worsened this issue, but without the misogyny behind it, the abortions wouldn't have been targeted towards female children.