Pledge to crack down on aborting healthy girls
Source: Xinhua |
August 9, 2011, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINA has vowed to crack down on sex-selective abortions for non-medical purposes, under a government plan released yesterday.
This is to balance the sex ratio in a country that traditionally holds that male heirs can ensure their families' bloodline is preserved.
The Outline for the Development of Chinese Children (2011-2020) says efforts should made to "eliminate discrimination against girls" and continue promoting gender equity.
"Using ultrasonic techniques to conduct non-medical sex determination" should be strictly prohibited, it says, adding that the economic and social status of rural families raising girls should be enhanced.
China has implemented family planning policies for about three decades that have restricted urban couples to just one child, while ethnic minority families are permitted to have more children.
Although the country's population has been controlled, illegal sex-selective abortions thrived in many parts of the country until the government cracked down.
Family planning policies have loosened over the years.
In many parts of the country, couples made up of people from one-child families are permitted to have two children.
In rural areas, couples are permitted to have a second child, if their first child is female.
Guangdong Province, one of the country's most populated provinces, recently submitted a proposal to the central government that will allow couples to have two children, even if just one of the parents is a single child, said Zhang Feng, the province's family planning official.
This is to balance the sex ratio in a country that traditionally holds that male heirs can ensure their families' bloodline is preserved.
The Outline for the Development of Chinese Children (2011-2020) says efforts should made to "eliminate discrimination against girls" and continue promoting gender equity.
"Using ultrasonic techniques to conduct non-medical sex determination" should be strictly prohibited, it says, adding that the economic and social status of rural families raising girls should be enhanced.
China has implemented family planning policies for about three decades that have restricted urban couples to just one child, while ethnic minority families are permitted to have more children.
Although the country's population has been controlled, illegal sex-selective abortions thrived in many parts of the country until the government cracked down.
Family planning policies have loosened over the years.
In many parts of the country, couples made up of people from one-child families are permitted to have two children.
In rural areas, couples are permitted to have a second child, if their first child is female.
Guangdong Province, one of the country's most populated provinces, recently submitted a proposal to the central government that will allow couples to have two children, even if just one of the parents is a single child, said Zhang Feng, the province's family planning official.
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