wildkat4510 asked:
They are making exeptions in the law in China for people who lost their child in the earthquake, or if their child is sevearly injured or disabled. My heart goes out to these people.
My question is what do they do in general if a couple has a child, and gets pregnant with a second? Is the woman forced to get an abortion, or if they have the child, do they take it away?
A man from China told me the one child rule really does not apply.
If a family has more than one child though China will not pay for the child’s advanced education.
Comment by Howard P — October 15, 2005 @ 5:07 pm
The one child policy is really just for city dwellers. In the country, it’s acceptable to have 2 children and in very rural areas there aren’t many restrictions. It’s mostly for labor reasons, you need kids to run the farm. In Tibet the policy doesn’t exist. Most of the time people make a conscious choice to have another child. They know that all they have to do is pay a fine.
A new law is if two only children marry, they are allowed to have 2 children instead of just one.
Families who choose to follow the policy receive raises, housing priority, health benefits, longer maternity leaves, child care priority and the child also gets schooling and work priority.
China is really big on contraceptives and in fact a lot of advancements, particularly in male contraceptives have come out of China. The government doesn’t consider abortion a form of birth control. Some regional governments have used forced abortion, but it’s not a government plan.
In some areas where it is harshly enforced families will give up female children (having kid after kid, hoping for a boy) or abort female fetuses.
Comment by erin7 — October 18, 2005 @ 2:46 pm
the earth quake area is a minority ethnic groups area, it means most families live their can have 2 or more children.
like my family, my family got 2 girls in china- my sister and me because my father is also a minority ethnic group.
and for the idiot who make a comment saying that how the government is going to force an abortion on the pregnant women or even kill them, the truth is that nobody can force people to get an abortion. it’s just that if you have more than one children you need to pay a big fine, and the family who don’t have enough money to pay for the fines are probably really poor family that can’t afford to raise another kid.
Comment by Icecream — October 19, 2005 @ 10:37 am
The fines are actually QUITE high, I was told its like US$ 3k, which when you consider the girls at the front desk in the VERY FANCY hotel country club where I stay when I’m there ( a pretty good job) only make about US $120 a month IS very high for the average Chinese national. You are not done paying after that either because then you don’t get the free 8 yrs of school and later in life will continue to lose out on other benefits and have to spend more.
Now I do know people in the GZ area who go to Hongkong for the second half of their pregnancies and try to circumvent the problems, but these people are quite wealthy (businesss owners’ wives etc.) and they can probably handle most of the fees with little difficulty.
The stories about forced abortions ARE true but not purvasive. They occur because local government is responsible to higher gov. for their population control success (or failure) and they are not always closely monitored. It is NOT policy to do that though and is a terrible thing that happens along with other forms of corruption when ruling parties are not held accountable for their actions and there is little to no transparency in government.
Yes it is true though that there have been exceptions made for those who have lost a child in the quakes and in cases where the family who lost a child has another child, THAT child can be registered for all the first child’s benefits. Also some cases where the first child is a girl allow the family to have a second etc. There are a lot of exceptions.
The policy seems brutal when seen through the eyes of westerners who are not used to such incursions on personal lives but I guess it has to be viewed from the standpoint of a place with such a population etc and while we may not agree it is for the Chinese to make their own decisions. I have read that they are considering getting rid of it all together, but I think they talk about that every few years and it is still in effect although more and more exceptions and loopholes find their way in.
Comment by Tyler — October 20, 2005 @ 5:45 am