Photo:VCG

Unmarried women aged over 30 should be allowed to give birth to one child and enjoy the rights including maternity leave and insurance as married parents, suggested a member of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). The remarks come as China's birth rate has nosedived in recent years.

The proposal, handed out by Hua Yawei, a CPPCC National Committee member, urged the society to be more tolerant to unmarried mothers and their children, noting that the children should be treated equally in household registration, schooling and medical treatment. Hua added that unmarried mothers should have maternity leave and insurance as married parents.

Under the current legislation, unmarried mothers are subject to penalties such as social support fees and are denied maternity leave and insurance. They also face difficulties in reimbursing medical fees.

Hua noted that the birth rate of 2020 has dropped 14.9 percent compared with last year, and many demographers predicted China will witness negative growth soon. He concluded that apart from low willingness to have kids, the situation that is not eligible to give birth, as well as reproductive difficulties are also factors that are holding back the birth rate.

He cited a health statistics yearbook issued by the National Health Commission which said that 9.76 million abortions were recorded in 2019, which roughly equals the number of newborns every year.

The CPPCC National Committee member also noted many people of marriable ages are having difficulties finding partners. In addition, some of those who are married are facing reproductive difficulties. The infertility rate in China has soared from 3.5 percent in 1997 to 16.4 percent in 2019, and is estimated to climb to 18.2 percent in 2023, which means every one in seven or eight couples are reproductively challenged, the yearbook pointed out. 

Facing these problems, Hua also suggested improving policies on assisted reproduction, such as allowing women aged above 30, whether married or not, to freeze their eggs, have access to assisted reproduction means, including artificial insemination or test tube babies. 

He also urged to regulate abortion, such as banning abortion unless in conditions such as the mother and the child's healthunder danger and teenage pregnancy. Hua suggested supervising medical institutes' abortion service, to reduce the harm of such practice on women of childbearing age.

Global Times