That harsh practice has become less common since China relaxed its one-child policy in So when news emerged this week that the government wants to reduce abortions for "non-medical reasons," the backlash was swift and furious.
Chinese social media was flooded with comments from women fed up with what they see as government efforts to control their bodies, describing the apparent U-turn on abortion as a desperate attempt to boost the country's dwindling birth rates.
When the state doesn't want it, you're not allowed to give birth even at the risk of death. The abortion policy was included in an expansive government blueprint to further women's rights over the next decade, covering areas ranging from education to employment, which state-run media boasted would improve gender equality "to a higher level in the new era.
Read More. The measure on abortion was part of a larger section about reproductive health that included provisions such as increasing health education and access to contraception. Beyond that brief sentence, however, no other details -- such as how the abortion restriction would be implemented or what criteria women would need to meet -- were provided. But the fact it was mentioned at all in the sweeping year plan is concerning -- and could be part of the government's campaign to increase the birth rate as it faces a growing demographic crisis, said Leta Hong Fincher, author of "Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China.
Despite its brevity, the line is "a statement of central government policy, and it sends a signal to all of those local level Communist Party cadres that this is a priority of the central government," she added.
Abortion has been widely practiced in China for decades. Under the one-child policy, introduced in , millions of women a year were forced to terminate "illegal" pregnancies. The traditional preference for sons also led to a rise in sex-selective abortions, with families often choosing to abort girls. This has contributed to a significantly skewed gender ratio, with the census revealing there were almost 35 million more men than women in the country of 1.
But over the past decade, China changed tack completely as it began to reckon with the consequences of its one-child policy -- a rapidly aging population and shrinking workforce that threatened the country's economic growth.
To raise its plummeting fertility rate, China enacted the two-child policy in , then the three-child policy in August this year. The government has also launched an aggressive propaganda campaign urging women to have more children, with some local authorities even offering financial incentives for families. China wants families to have three children. But many women aren't convinced. So far, their efforts have been met with a lukewarm response at best. Many women, who now enjoy greater educational and career opportunities than in the past, are reluctant to expand their families -- especially with other obstacles like a high cost of living and entrenched gender norms that relegate childcare to mothers.
Abortions have also remained high, even after the one-child policy was relaxed and the government criminalized sex-selective terminations. Isaak Olson, in a lawsuit filed in U. District Court in Hartford Wednesday, claims the parenthood ban is unconstitutional.
David Santos, a spokesman for the academy, said by email Thursday that the Coast Guard does not comment on pending legal matters. Karl L. William G. Olson attended the academy from June until June He learned in April , at the end of his third year, that his girlfriend, now wife, was 19 weeks pregnant. As of right now, Storm does not identify with either gender but instead acts like any rambunctious toddler that likes to play with sock puppets and dresses as a monster for Halloween.
Currently, the Witterick-Stocker household does not keep gender a secret but possesses it as irrelevant to their everyday lives.
From this exploration into the lives of baby Storm and gender-neutral parenting techniques many questions come to mind. When it comes down to it, adults are the ones that find the need to define each gender form. However, it is the children and their gendered identities that are actually emerging.
Children start understanding the concept of gender and start identifying with gender forms as early as the age of one. They are the ones that will self-identify with whatever gendered term they feel comfortable.
This is seen through baby Storm and his or her lack of a gender-oriented upbringing. This poses the question: why are adults within society so set on defining gendered terms that can bring limitations for an individual?
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