Hainan seeks to curb some abortions
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Authorities in the tropical island province of Hainan want to make it illegal for pregnant women to get an abortion after 14 weeks.
The move is intended to tackle the gender imbalance and gender-based abortions in a province where boys are favored far more than other parts of the country.
The gender ratio between male and female newborns is currently 135.6: 100, according to the 2000 statistics of population census. The world ratio is 106:100.
Hainan is one of the few provinces where the gender ratio is higher than 130:100, the report said.
According to the regulation, those who want to get an abortion after 14 weeks must get approval from the local population office.
As a consequence, those who get an abortion without permission will be fined and that aborted baby will still be counted under the family planning rule, the population and family planning committee in Hainan said Monday.
"Those who failed to get approval will lose their birth quota, which means the baby they give birth to in the future will be considered a second birth," an official surnamed Wu at the committee told the Global Times Monday. Wu said he didn't know when the rule would be adopted.
If a woman finds out that her fetus has a serious defect, the pregnancy might endanger her life or she needs abortion due to divorce, she could get approval from family planning offices where her hukou is, Hainan-based Business Daily of International Tourism Island reported Monday.
Hainan, which traditionally favors boys as they are prefered by rural families who farm and fish, has had a serious gender imbalance since the 1990s.
The family planning authority said they picked 14 weeks because it is easier to determine a baby's gender after this period.
However, some local residents questioned the idea.
"The regulation violates marriage laws that said we have the right to decide whether to give birth to a baby and I doubt its effect in achieving gender balance," said a local resident surnamed Du.
Authorities in Hainan also said that they would step up efforts to shut down private clinics that provide gender-based abortions and gender tests.
Annually there are 13 million abortions in China, one fourth of the total cases across the world, according to statistics of World Health Organization.
