Abortion in China: Incidence and Implications

State of the Field: Women in China's Long Twentieth Century

“…In the 1950s, women within the party argued against an unalloyed pronatalist policy and for access to birth control and abortion (T. White 1994). Access to abortion was eased, although not without objection from health-care providers concerned about the strain on the medical system (Tien 1987). By the middle of the decade, the top party leadership, worried about rapid population growth, endorsed birth control, but this approach was soon transformed into a doctrine of statecontrolled birth planning (Banister 1987; T. White 1994).…”

“…By the 1970s, the government had begun a national effort to lower the birth rate via a policy of "later, longer, fewer," and the 1970s saw a dramatic reduction in the birth rate, even prior to the one-child campaign (Parish and Whyte 1978;P. Chen 1985;Croll 1985a;Banister 1987;Tien 1987). Until the late 1970s, state-sponsored birth planning continued to be framed primarily in terms of women's liberation, health, and the education of children, rather than national survival (Potter 1985;Greenhalgh 1990).…”

“…In 1979 the Chinese government moved to the goal of one child per Han family (Croll 1985a;Kane 1985Kane , 1987Banister 1987;Greenhalgh 1990), with more children allowed to non-Han families (Pasternak and Salaff 1993). The government argued that if drastic steps were not taken to limit fertility, the needs of a burgeoning population would not be met, national development strategy would be undermined, and terrible suffering would result (Potter 1985;Croll 1985a;Tien 1985Tien , 1987Bianco and Hua 1988;Potter and Potter 1990). Birth planning was mentioned as a state concern and a citizen's duty in the 1978 and 1982 constitutions, the 1980 Marriage Law, and the 1992 Law on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women, but its implementation has been based on local laws and regulations rather than on a national population law (Tien 1987;Milwertz 1997).…”

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“…The family planning programme was implemented earlier and more vigorously in China's large cities, so the rise in abortions was more notable and abortion incidence was much higher in urban areas than at the national level. In Shanghai, abortions exceeded births every year in the late 1970s and early 1980s (Tien, 1987). In Xi'an city, Shaanxi province, the likelihood of a woman with a child to abort for next pregnancy increased from 39 per cent in 1977 to 88 per cent in 1981, with 96 per cent of women in 1981 with two or more children chosing to abort than next pregnancy.…”

“…Despite the role of the family planning programme, the incidence of abortion varied substantially across China. There is evidence that both the population policy and socio-economic changes were affecting the likelihood of women having an abortion (Tien, 1987;Li and others, 1990).…”