In China, new restrictions on non-therapeutic abortions

2021-09-29T20:08:14.230Z

China has issued new guidelines limiting the number of abortions performed for "non-medical purposes". The State Council published the new rules today. The country has already taken stringent measures to prevent sex-selective abortions, and health authorities warned in 2018 that "the use of abortion to end unwanted pregnancies was harmful to women's bodies and risks causing infertility ". The State Council said the new guidelines "will aim to improve women's general access to pre-pregnancy health services". The objective of the new measures seems to be to address the decline in the birth rate in the country,that think tanks and political researchers identify as one of the main challenges of Beijing's politics in the coming decades.