Imagine being told by your government that you had to abort your baby. Imagine a committee of government officials coming to your house to say that you had to undergo sterilization. Imagine being fined, or losing your job, or feeling compelled to drop your baby in a “baby hatch” and abandoning it forever – because you got pregnant with a second child without permission. Or, because male children are favored over female children, you decide you will leave your baby girl off at an adoption agency anonymously so that you can “try” to have a son. These are just some of the things that happened to Chinese women during the four decades of China’s “One Child Policy” years. On January 1st of this year, China rescinded its “one child policy” and now couples will be allowed to have two children. China’s population is one of the oldest – if not THE oldest population in the world – and now it is worried about its economic future. The government has realized that its work force is aging and there are limited numbers of young people to take the place of these workers. The sex ratio in the country is also very skewed as there are far more male citizens than there are female – remember, male babies are preferred so women often made sure that if they could only have one child, it would be a son. These are some of the reasons why the “one child policy” was reversed.
For a short video about this topic, you can visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVMKRm4Pe1g