More Than 13 Million Abortions a Year in China, 55 Percent of Women Have One

International   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Feb 18, 2009   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

More Than 13 Million Abortions a Year in China, 55 Percent of Women Have One

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 18
, 2009

Beijing, China (LifeNews.com) — Americans have long bemoaned the fact that well over one million abortions are done in the United States annually. That number pales in comparison to the new figures from China showing more than 13 million abortions are done annually and about 55 percent of all Chinese women have had one.

The abortion statistics were presented by population officials to a conference in Shanghai.

Attendees learned that about 25 percent of women in their 20s have had an abortion. With more than 100 million women in that age range living in China, about 27.3 percent have had an abortion.

Dr Liu Xiaoai, vice director of the Shanghai Institute of Family Planning Technical Instruction, presented to the conference, according to the Shanghai Daily, and said that more information on contraception is needed.

Liu said the high number of abortions is "because of Chinese women’s poor awareness of oral contraceptives and misunderstanding on the side effects of long-term use of such pills."

The conference also learned that repeat abortions are also a problem in China with one survey of 8,846 women having abortions in Beijing’s 10 hospitals showing 35.97 percent of the women were having second abortions shortly after a first one.

The new figures come on the heels of a Family Planning Commission survey showing 70 percent of the women questioned want to be allowed to have two or more children.

That’s no surprise considering the Asian nation has prohibited most residents from having more than one children and subjected to forced abortions, sterilizations, and other human rights abuses those who do.

The survey was conducted three years ago but NFPC officials only released it now.

“Our research shows that 70.7 percent of women would like to have two or more babies,” Jiang Fan, NFPC deputy minister, told AsiaNews. "Some mothers think only-children suffer from loneliness and can become spoiled.”

The results fly in the face of family planning officials who have long insisted the one-child population control program enjoyed massive public support.

The pro-abortion policy has produced numerous socioeconomic problems ranging from a skewed male-female birth ratio and a strident worker shortage to a nation of bachelors unable to find wives and increasing sex trafficking and prostitution.

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