The Anti-Natalist Policy in China is a huge violation to human rights and s | Teen Ink

The Anti-Natalist Policy in China is a huge violation to human rights and s

August 26, 2017
By Shar_77 GOLD, Shanghai, Other
Shar_77 GOLD, Shanghai, Other
10 articles 0 photos 0 comments

In the United States, having siblings and a big family is never a big deal. However, in China, the ratio of infant population around 1990s dropped dramatically, and almost everyone in that generation does not have siblings. The reason for this saddening problem is because of the one-child policy in China. Obviously, the one-child policy is the policy to control the fraternity rate of women in China which itself is unlawful. I believe that China, as an anti-natalist country, should abolish its anti-natalist policies and respect women and their equal rights in this country.

In 1979, the Chinese government established the One-child Policy, which restricted the amount of babies a mother could give birth to. If a female violates it, they not only have to pay an enormous amount of money but are also forced to quit work. This was to control the population in China, which was growing exponentially during the several decades. Sarcastically, it ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women one year after the establishment of this law.

This policy violates Article 16(1e) which grants women the right to choose the amount of babies they would like and the spacing between each child. Chinese females do not have the right to work after they conceive for the second time, which violates Article 11 of CEDAW. In the past two years, the One-child policy was abolished and families are allowed to have two kids. Even though the government is trying to make a difference, the restriction is still a violation to CEDAW. Since China ratified the treaty, I believe that it has an obligation to realize the rights of its citizens.

In the Anti-natalist Policy, it stated that females either need to pay for an enormous amount of money or get an abortion. In most cases, females had to quit their jobs as well. For many families that are not that rich, abortion is the only choice. Many people argue that women should have the right to get abortions and I agree. However, I think the problem is not the access to get an abortion; It is the rights of females to choose to keep the baby or not. In this case, for most families, they don’t have a choice either. This violates Article 11(1b&f) which grants women the right to work and protection of health. My mother had a terrible time because of the policy. In 2003, when I was three years old, my mother got pregnant again. However, if she gave birth to the baby, she would have been fired from her company, and she would have to pay a lot of money which was hard for us to afford at that time. She got an abortion that year. Two years later, she got pregnant again, and she got an abortion again. After her second abortion, her health condition became worse each day. She got a liver problem that was so severe that she lived in the hospital for several months. Luckily, she got better. Her period stopped at the age of 40, which is an early age. I feel awful every time my dad recalls this. I hope that this kind of sad experiences would not happen to any other mothers in China, ever again.

With the publishing of Two-children Policy, another problem had occurred. Many families decide to have another child, but the mothers are at a relatively large age group to give birth to a child. It is often not recommended for the mother to give birth at such a large age group because it might be dangerous for the mother. Sometimes, the age gap between the two children can be over 15 years. For the health of mothers, Anti-natalist policies are necessary to be abolished.

However, some people argue that Anti-natalist Policies was required for the society in the 1970s. The Chinese government was not able to offer people in China enough food and health care if the population continued to grow exponentially. There were not sufficient job positions for everyone, which means that many citizens were becoming vagrants and more are going to be if there were no policies to stop the population from growing. The situation was pretty bad back then. Back in the 1940s, China needed more labor force so it ordered its citizens to give birth to as many children as they can, and thus cause the chaos of population in China. It was telling the citizens to pay for their fault and harming its citizen's health.

The Anti-natalist Policy in China is a violation of women’s rights and harms their health condition. The Chinese government has an obligation to abolish it and defend the right of females.



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