The local family planning authority in Shangluo, Shaanxi Province, has told women working at government affiliated institutions they are obliged to take a pregnancy test four times a year.

The Shangluo Population and Family Planning Commission, Shaanxi Province, increased the number of pregnancy tests for urban government staff from two to four in August.

It also ordered women who already have a child to be fitted with an intrauterine device. The commission's policies were widely criticized by Web users after they were made public Saturday.

The local commission told the Beijing News that more frequent pregnancy tests will allow it to identify government staffers who are pregnant and order abortions at an early stage if the woman is not qualified to bear a child.

"The local commissions have to take certain measures in order to meet their family planning quota," Liang Zhongtang, a former expert with the National Population and Family Planning Commission and a researcher at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

Although the law does not specify frequency, requests of women to take pregnancy tests in smaller cities or villages are very common, said Laing.

The Shangluo commission said the pregnancy tests were obligatory and those who refuse to take the test could be punished, according to the Bejing News.

Global Times