Abortions Surge in China; Officials Cite Poor Sex Education

[Coventina]

Source: New York Times

HONG KONG — More than 13 million abortions are performed each year in China, according to statistics disclosed by Chinese health officials on Thursday, a marked increase from 2003, the most recent statistics available.

When unreported and medication-induced abortions are counted, the actual number is substantially higher, according to physicians and medical researchers quoted by the state-run newspaper China Daily on Thursday.

The rate of abortion in China — about 24 abortions for every 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44 — is less than half that of the world’s highest rate. That is Russia’s, at 53.7 per 1,000, according to the United Nations Population Division. Some two million abortions are performed each year in Russia, which has a population of 142 million. China’s population is 1.3 billion.

But the rise in the numbers is significant. In a joint report, the World Health Organization and the Guttmacher Institute put the number of abortions in China in 2003 at 9 million, out of a total of 42 million worldwide that year.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/world/asia/31abortion.html

[UpInArms]

1. Related: 13 million abortions in China each year: report

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE56T0S020090730

BEIJING (Reuters) - Some 13 million abortions are carried out in China each year, in part because there is little education about contraception or disease for the rising numbers of young people who are having sex, state media said on Thursday.

Fewer than one in three callers to a Shanghai hotline knew how to avoid pregnancy, and only one in five were informed about venereal disease, the official China Daily quoted a survey by the city's 411 Army Hospital saying.

"Sex is no longer considered taboo among young people today, and they believe they can learn everything they need from the Internet. But it doesn't mean they have developed a proper understanding or attitude toward it," the paper quoted hospital gynecologist Yu Dongyan saying.

Until the 1990s, doctors asked for women's marital status at abortion clinics, which were part of the family planning system that limited urban couples to one child.

Now, government data shows that nearly two thirds of women who have abortions are between 20 and 29, and most are single, the paper said.

Birth control information is mainly given to young couples.

Some single women may also be driven to seek abortions because under current laws unmarried mothers cannot get a "hukou" or household registration card for their child.

Without one it is extremely hard for Chinese citizens to get access to education, healthcare and other public services. China also sells about 10 million abortion pills a year, and there are many other abortions performed in unregistered clinics, the paper quoted Wu Shangchun, a division director at the National Population and Family Planning Commission, as saying.

In the United States, by contrast, which has a population less than one-quarter that of China, official figures from the Center for Disease Control show there were 820,000 abortions performed in 2005, excluding California, Louisiana and New Hampshire for which no figures were provided.

...more...

Okay - so now will the fundies quit shopping at Squal-Mart and buying Chinese imports? The hypocrisy is incredible - bash the US and buy Chinese

:shrug:

[Beavker]

2. Why aren't they just preaching abstinence?

You mean actually educating people and providing contraception is something that other cultures see as a way to stop unwanted pregnancies? Why isn't it abstinence alone that is lacking in the culture and being mentioned as the thing that needs to be taught? Contra- What? :sarcasm:

GOP, you suck it.

[defendandprotect]

3. When women are deprived of sex education and contraception . . .

what else would happen --