China Offers Women Perks for Having Babies, if They’re Married

Chan Chan was confused when Americans were still discussing the right to abortion when they heard about the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Roe v. Wade case.

“Here, as a whole, society does not encourage abortion,” said Zhang, a 37-year-old junior faculty member at a prestigious university on the east coast of China. I want to have an abortion. “

Abortion, like almost all reproductive problems in China, is heavily focused on the authority of the Chinese Communist Party. For decades, the party has forced women to have abortions and sterilization as part of their one-child policy. Currently facing a demographic crisis, women are required to give birth to multiple babies, preferably three.

However, Beijing is still deciding who can give birth and discriminates against single women like Mr. Zhang and minorities through strict family planning policies. The question now is, as many women say, why they choose to have a baby.

China’s fertility rate is at historically low levels, and authorities are offering taxes and housing credits, educational benefits, and even cash incentives to encourage women to have more children. increase. Still, the benefits are only available to couples. This is an increasingly unattractive prerequisite for independent women who in some cases prefer to be parents alone.

Babies born to single parents in China have long struggled to enjoy social benefits such as medical insurance and education. Single and pregnant women are regularly denied access to public health care and insurance that covers maternity leave. If the employer dismisses him as pregnant, they are not legally protected.

Some single women, including Mr. Zhang, simply choose not to have children and are quietly opposed to Beijing’s dominance over women’s bodies. People 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 conflict with public opinion, but it’s not,” said Sara Gao, a 46-year-old single mother who lives in Beijing and is open about her reproductive rights. Said. “Actually this system.”

Chinese law requires pregnant women and their husbands to register their marriage for prenatal care at a public hospital. When Gao learned she was pregnant, she had to tell a doctor at a hospital that her husband was abroad.

Her daughter was born in November 2016. Eight months later, Gao was dismissed from her job and urged her to file a proceeding accusing the company of discrimination at her workplace. Her company won because Gao is not eligible for legal interests and protection as her unmarried mother.

The court said her unmarried childbirth “did not meet China’s national policy.” She is fascinated for the third time.

China’s National Family Planning Policy does not explicitly state that unmarried women cannot give birth, but defines mothers as married women and supports married mothers. The village offers cash bonuses to families with new babies. Dozens of cities have expanded maternity leave, adding a month for their second and third married mothers. A state in northwestern China is considering a one-year vacation. Some people say “Parenting breakFor couples with young children.

But sweeteners haven’t done much to reverse the demographic crisis, especially in the face of China’s steady decline in marriage rates, which reached its lowest level in 36 years last year. Women who have matured during the greatest period of economic growth in China’s modern history are increasingly worried that calming down will deprive them of their hard-earned independence.

Politicians at the recent annual meeting of the Rubber India Parliament in China have suggested that the party is more tolerant of single women who want children and gives them the same rights as couples. However, even though the declining population threatens Beijing’s long-term economic ambitions, Chinese authorities often fail to introduce permanent policy changes.

Authorities moved last year to abolish the use of “social support” fees (a kind of penalty) that single mothers pay to benefit their children. However, the rules may differ because the adoption of new rules has been delayed in some regions and enforcement is left to the discretion of the local government.Recent changes in Chinese law Make it illegal To discriminate against single-parent children, but some women still have to navigate an uncaring bureaucracy.

Last year, the landlocked country of Hunan said it would consider providing fertility services to single women, but little progress has been made. When Shanghai decided to abandon its policy of giving birth benefits only to married women, it overturned the decision only a few weeks later, emphasizing how difficult it would be for authorities to loosen their grip on family planning.

“At the social level, it’s a legally recognized threat to the marriage system and social stability,” said Chung Take, an assistant professor of sociology at the National University of Singapore, who studies Chinese fertility.

Ten years ago, 36-year-old Kelly Sea got married because she wanted a child. “I was reaching that age at that time, and I was picking, and he seemed to be the most appropriate person,” she said. Four years later she gave birth to her daughter, but she was dissatisfied with her marriage.

Her mother-in-law loved her husband, criticized Xie as soon as something went wrong at home, and sometimes called her to work to complain about dust in the corners and unwashed dishes in the sink. ..

The divorced Xie said she wanted to have a second child by herself, but her options were limited. One possibility is to travel abroad for in vitro fertilization (IVF). This can be exorbitant for some women. For now, Xie wants to search the internet to find someone who can help her get pregnant in the old-fashioned way.

Providing maternity insurance to single mothers to cover the cost of fertility services such as in vitro fertilization would be a great source of support for unmarried women, Xie said. In Beijing, for example, married women are now able to freeze their eggs and receive other subsidized IVF services under the city’s health insurance benefits. This is part of a new policy of “supporting fertility.”

In vitro fertilization is illegal for unmarried women almost everywhere in the country, so Li Xueke traveled to Thailand at the age of 29 and went through the procedure there. Lee, an entrepreneur who ran a modeling school and made a fortune, told her that if she couldn’t find a man she wanted to marry by the age of 30, she would have a baby herself.

She has become a triplet, and almost three years later she still doesn’t regret her decision.

“I want to live a quality life as a single mother rather than get married and settle down,” said Lee, who can hire and take care of a nanny without the need for government financial support. .. Her children.

But even among the most educated and skilled women in China, Lee is outlier. Many successful women who want to have children but are lagging behind national policies for single mothers have decided not to become pregnant.

“If you really want to have a baby without a man, you have to fight for it,” said teacher Zhang.

Claire Fu When Zixu Wang Contributed to the research.