China's One-Child and Abortion Policy

China's One-Child and Abortion Policy

Chen Guancheng, Population policy, Contraception,Abortion, Family, China

The China's One Child and Abortion Policy has long been considered a pillar of the nation's economic development strategy, according to an article by Philip Pan entitled "Who Controls the Family?: Blind Activist Leads Peasants in Legal Challenge to Abuses of China's Population-Growth Policy" published in Washington Post Foreign Service on August 27, 2005. It is a policy implemented since 1980 encouraging Chinese couples to limit their immediate family into three by having only one child especially among government workers and those living in China's urban areas. However, rural families are generally allowed a second child, five (5) years after the birth of the first, especially if the first was a girl.

In 2002, the government adopted an expansive law granting citizens the right to make an "informed choice" in family planning. And in recent years, it has moved toward a system of economic rewards for couples with only one child and fines or
fees for those with more.

Despite this welcoming move, policy resorted into abuses committed by some local officials and population zealots in identified cities in China like Linyi in Shandong Province. In January 2005, Chen Guangcheng started to investigate the Linyi population-control abuses, and provided legal aids to would be mothers who were forced into late-term abortions and thousands of women and some men into involuntary sterilization.

His expose led to an investigation by the State Family Planning Commission while Chen took the battle to the press and diplomatic corps and onto the Internet, leading to global exposure. [Photo shows Chinese Magsaysay Awardee for Peace and International Understanding for 2007 Tang Xiyang with a child.]

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