Shanghai: Difference between revisions

In China, abortion is legal for up to six months of gestation. This legality can be found in Criminal Code of China, enacted by the National People's Congress on 1 July 1979. All general reasons for an abortion are permitted, including: to save the life of the woman, to preserve physical health, to preserve mental health, rape or incest, fetal impairment, economic or social reasons, and available on request. The methods of abortion vary, depending on the length of the pregnancy. For early pregnancy, the vacuum aspiration technique is used. Second trimester abortions require an in-hospital procedure performed by a physician. The government of China provides abortion services as a public service. Once women receive an abortion, they are entitled to paid sick leave for 14 days (if the abortion took place in the first trimester) or 30 days (if the abortion took place in the second trimester). In some parts of the country, if the woman receives an IUD or sterilization after her baby's birth, paid sick leave is extended.<ref>[http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/abortion/profiles.htm UN Report: Abortion Policies, China]</ref>

Historically, abortion was not always widely legal in the People's Republic of China. In the early 1950s, abortion was only permitted under special circumstances, which included: continuation of the pregnancy was considered medically undesirable, the spacing of the children was too close together, or when a mother had recently delivered another child (under 4 months of age) and, after becoming pregnant again, experienced difficulty breastfeeding. In all of these cases, a joint application of the couple and certification of the physician was required. Sometimes, certain professional or academic obligations could also be considered valid reasons, but approval was required by both professional/academic personnel as well as medical personnel.  

This changed in April 12 1957. The Public Health Ministry announced that all applications for abortion or sterilization would be free of previous restrictions. There would be no concerns for age, number of children or specific certifications. Yet abortion was not yet restriction-free. Under the new law, abortions could only be performed on a woman once a year and only within the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. At that time, the government still hoped to stress the importance of contraceptives as a means of population control.  

Contraceptives, however, weren't enough. Over the 1950s and 1960s, the Chinese population continued to grow. And, by the 1970s, the government decided to take a more proactive approach to family planning. It was at this time that the government decided to include family planning and population control into their economic planning. In 1976, during the time of Mao's death, the government introduced the "Later, Longer, Fewer" (Wan-Xi-Shao) campaign. This campaign encouraged people to only start families after establishing solid careers ("later"), to space children 3-4 years apart in age ("longer") and to have less children so that each child had more social and economic opportunity ("fewer").<ref>[http://www.explainz.com/explanations/society/later-longer-fewer Later, Longer, Fewer]</ref> The campaign was considered rather successful, and China saw a substantial decline in its birth rate.

In 1979, China replaced the "Later, Longer, Fewer" campaign with the One-Child Policy. This policy, which required that families should have only one child, was meant to last for only one generation. However, it became a general policy in China, lasting until 2015. Many Chinese citizens were not required to comply with the policy. During this time, family planning became a central government focus and free contraceptives were made available. By the 1990, it was found that 85% of women of reproductive age were using contraceptives, which was comparable to developed nation rates. The most common forms of contraceptives were IUD, female sterilization and male sterilization.  

After Chinese women removed their IUDs, they typically did not use another form of contraceptive, resulting in many pregnancies. As stated in the UN report, "Government officials have estimated that 70 per cent of the abortions in China follow contraceptive failure. The number of abortions ranged from about 4 million to 5 million per annum between 1971 and 1978.  In 1979, after the one-child policy went into effect, the incidence of abortion was about 7.9 million. The number reached an all-time high around 1983, with 14.4 million abortions recorded, and then gradually declined to about 10.6 million in 1989." Furthermore, abortions were more common in coastal areas than in inland areas.<ref>[http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/abortion/profiles.htm UN Report: Abortion Policies, China]</ref>