China limits access to ‘non-therapeutic’ abortion | Seeks to reverse the fall in the birth rate

China has said it will reduce access to “non-therapeutic” abortions as part of policies to encourage families to have more children, a package aimed at mitigating falling birth rates.

The government initiative aims to “improve women’s general access to pre-gestational health services”, and is part of the strategies aimed at reversing the decline in the birth rate in the country, identified by experts and demographers. among the “main and urgent” challenges of Social Policy.

According to official statistics, doctors in China performed 336 million abortions between 1971 and 2013, and sex-selective abortions, in a context offering more benefits for the lives of men than for those of women, are are generalized. As a result, the search for a son instead of a daughter caused a gender imbalance of 30 million more men than women.

China remains the most populous country in the world, but the latest census showed that population growth from 2011 to 2020 was the slowest since the 1950s, with forecasts for a further slowdown until the turnaround that could come to fruition. . rose from 1.6 births per woman in 2016 to 1.3 in 2020.