When Chan Zhang learned about the US Supreme Court’s decision to… overthrow Roe v. Wadeshe was stunned that Americans were still arguing over abortion rights.
“In general, society doesn’t encourage abortion here,” said Ms. Zhang, a 37-year-old junior faculty member at a prestigious university on China’s east coast, “but I feel like women have a right to determine whether or not to have abortions.” want to commit.”
Abortion, like almost all reproductive issues in China, focuses heavily on the authority of the Chinese Communist Party. The party for decades forced abortions and sterilizations of women as part of its one-child policy. Now, faced with a demographic crisis, it wants women to have more than one baby – and preferably three†
But Beijing still dictates who can have babies, still discriminates single woman like Ms. Zhang and minorities through a draconian family planning policy. The question now, many women say, is why they would choose to have babies at all.
Of Birth rate in China at historic low, officials have handed out tax and housing credits, education benefits and even monetary incentives to encourage women to have more children. Still, the benefits are only available to married couples, a condition that is becoming increasingly unappealing to independent women who, in some cases, prefer parenthood alone.
Babies of single parents in China have long struggled to receive social benefits such as health insurance and education. Women who are single and pregnant are regularly denied access to public health care and insurance that covers maternity leave. They are not protected by law if employers fire them because they are pregnant.
Some single women, including Mrs. Zhang, simply choose not to have a child and quietly resist Beijing’s control over the female body. Those who find ways to circumvent the rules often face consequences from the state.
“Many people think that being a single mother is a process of confronting public opinion, but it isn’t,” said Sarah Gao, 46, a single parent living in Beijing who is outspoken about reproductive rights. “It’s basically this system.”
Chinese law requires a pregnant woman and her husband to register their marriage to receive prenatal care at a public hospital. When Mrs. Gao found out she was pregnant, she had to tell the doctors at a hospital that her husband was abroad to be admitted.
Her daughter was born in November 2016. Eight months later, Ms. Gao was fired from her job, prompting her to file a lawsuit accusing the company of workplace discrimination. The company won because Mrs. Gao does not qualify for legal benefits and protections as an unwed mother.
The court said her unmarried birth was “not in line with China’s national policy”. She is appealing for the third time.
China’s national family planning policy does not explicitly state that an unmarried woman cannot have children, but defines a mother as a married woman and prefers married mothers. Villages offer cash bonuses to families with new babies. Dozens of cities have extended maternity leave and added an extra month for second and third time married mothers. A province in northwestern China is even considering a full year’s leave. Some have made”parenting breaks” for couples with young children.
But the sweeteners aren’t doing much to reverse the demographic crisis, especially given China’s steadily declining marriage rate, which is a 36 years low last year† Women who have come of age during the greatest period of economic growth in China’s modern history are increasingly concerned that their hard-earned independence will be diminished if they settle down.
A politician at the most recent annual meeting of China’s legislature suggested the party be more tolerant of single women who wanted children, and give them the same rights as married couples. But even if a shrinking population threatens Beijing’s long-term economic ambitions, the Chinese authorities have often failed to implement lasting policy changes.
Authorities last year scrapped the use of “social support” fees – a type of fine – paid by single mothers to receive benefits for their children. But some areas have been slow to adopt the new rules, and regulations may vary as enforcement is left to the discretion of local governments. Recent changes to Chinese law make it illegal to discriminate against the children of single parents, but some women still have to navigate an unsympathetic bureaucracy.
Last year, the landlocked province of Hunan said it would consider providing fertility services for single women, but it hasn’t made much progress. When Shanghai decided to drop his policy giving maternity benefits only to married women, it reversed the decision just a few weeks later, underscoring how difficult it is for authorities to loosen their grip on family planning.
“On a societal level, it poses a threat to the legally recognized marriage institution and social stability,” said Zheng Mu, an assistant professor of sociology at the National University of Singapore who studies fertility in China.
Ten years ago, Kelly Xie, 36, married because she wanted a child. “I had reached that age, then I was picking and choosing and it looked like he was the most suitable one,” she said. Four years later she gave birth to a daughter, but she was unhappy in her marriage.
The latest on China: important things to know
Press Taiwan. Taiwan’s lucrative fishing industry braces for heavy losses after China’s recent ban on grouper imports of the island in an apparent attempt to turn the economic screw on the self-governed territory Beijing claims as its own.
Her mother-in-law adored her husband and was quick to criticize Ms. Xie when things weren’t right at home, sometimes even calling her at work to complain about dust in the corner or an unwashed plate in the sink.
Now that she is divorced, Ms. Xie said she would like to have a second child on her own, but her options are limited. One option is to travel abroad for in vitro fertilization or IVF, which can be prohibitively expensive for some women. For now, Ms. Xie searches the Internet in hopes of finding someone who will help her conceive the old-fashioned way.
Offering single mothers maternity insurance to cover the costs of fertility services such as IVF would be a great source of support for unmarried women, Ms. Xie said. In Beijing, for example, married women can now freeze their eggs and get other subsidized IVF services under the city’s medical benefits, part of a new policy to “support fertility.”
IVF is illegal for unmarried women almost everywhere in the country, so Li Xueke traveled to Thailand at age 29 to have the procedure performed there. Ms. Li, an entrepreneur who made her fortune by running modeling schools, told herself that if she didn’t find a man to marry before she was 30, she would only have a baby.
She gave birth to triplets and almost three years later she does not regret her decision.
“I think as a single mother I’d rather live a good life than get married and settle for less,” said Ms. Li, who doesn’t need government funding and can hire nannies to take care of the household. her children.
But even among the most educated and talented women in China, Ms. Li is an outlier. Many successful women who want to have children, but are deterred by the country’s policy on single mothers, have decided not to conceive.
“If you really want to have a baby without a man,” said Ms. Zhang, the faculty member, “you have to fight for it.”
Claire Fu and Zixu Wang research contributed.