Unpack the reconfiguration of population policy in China – Cai Yping

In September 2021, the Chinese government releases the new policy guideline on women, namely “Program for Women and Development (2021-2030)”. In the area of “Women and Health”, it states to “reduce abortions for non-medical reasons” as one of the strategies to meet the health target. This language triggers the vigilance of many feminists and SRHR advocates who depressingly foresee that over the next decade, access to abortion will be restricted to cases with medical indication. Undoubtably, their concern is not groundless nor unnecessary, especially if we locate these set of policy changes in China in the broader global context of fierce anti-abortion, anti-gender ideology campaigns happening in Americas, Europe, and Africa. Although there are differences in the motivations and rationalities informing abortion politics in each country, whether for the benefit of state’s objectives (higher fertility) or else in the name of a moral mandate mostly deriving from Christian religious doctrines basis, this
potential unusual convergence tendency deserves more systematic research and critical reflections.

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