Worldcrunch
Studies show that countries around the world will see their populations shrink by 2050. To combat demographic decline, a growing list of countries are implementing policies to try to encourage women to have babies — yet these birth rate policies don’t ever seem to work.
Economic crisis and higher inflation in Egypt have prompted many young married people to abandon the idea of having children. And if they decide to have children, they just want one or two at most to be able to provide them a decent life.
Poland, known for having some of Europe’s most restrictive abortion laws, only allows the procedure in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the mother is at risk. But even when abortions are performed legally, women can be met with criminal accusations from the police.
In an attempt to counter an aging population, China announced its “three-child policy” last year. It has also cracked down on sex education and contraception. The move has meant that abortion is often the only option for Chinese girls and women in the post-family planning era.
An Iranian public healthcare official warns that a parliamentary bill to boost birth rates will cut access to condoms, and could fuel sexually-transmitted diseases like AIDS.
Across the globe, travel restrictions, stay-at-home orders and shifting health care priorities have combined to make abortion an even more difficult procedure to obtain.
BEIJING — President Xi Jinping is now be turning his attention to China’s so-called “black households,” those without an official family registry document, who are thus barred from obtaining legal proof of identity. But China will need more than Xi’s good will to solve the problem, which ultimately can be traced in large part back […]
A pregnant Chinese woman must abort her baby, or see her husband fired. After first changes to family planning laws, sweeping reform is now urgently needed.
NEW DELHI — Archana, who is just 15, is desperately trying to put her 3-month-old brother to sleep. He’s crying out for his mother, who died last week after going to a government-run sterilization camp. At least 15 others suffered the same fate, and scores of others are seriously ill after undergoing tubectomies at two Indian sterilization “camps.” Ongoing investigations point to contaminated drugs given to the women as a possible cause of death. But a dirty operating room and surgeries performed in a matter of minutes with unsanitized instruments have raised serious questions about India’s approach to population control […]
Setting limits on having children has meant an army of Chinese civil servants systematically employing kidnapping, torture, forced sterilization and abortions. And for what?