Chinese authorities have reportedly been considering legal and financial support for in vitro fertilization (IVF) as the communist nation deals with the fallout of coercive and dehumanizing population control.
Last week, Reuters highlighted the case of a Sichuan woman named Chen Luojin who is considering IVF as her province of Chengdu (capital of the southwestern Sichuan province) legalized registration of children born to unmarried mothers in February. It’s unclear how other provinces will follow. However, the Chinese Communist Party reportedly is already considering supporting IVF and other fertility treatments through its national insurance policy for the entire nation, to address record-low birth rates.
Reuters reported that the divorced 33-year-old was 10 weeks pregnant but didn’t explicitly say she had obtained IVF treatment – just that she could legally access it in a private clinic.
Chen reportedly indicated other women are considering IVF. “Equally, getting married or not is for each individual to decide,” she said, according to Reuters. “We have liberalised the policies here and I know a lot of single women are doing IVF.”
The moves come after last year’s report showing the nation’s population dropped for the first time in decades. The drop is likely due to restrictive policies but may also be impacted by other trends, such as women waiting to start a family.
Regardless, the consideration of pro-birth policies constitutes a somewhat dramatic about-face for a country that, for decades, restricted families to just one child. In its wake, the one-child policy has left millions of children dead and mothers likely racked with trauma from abortions they were forced into by the government.
The country’s draconian policies have even created an entire sub-class of residents known as “heihaizi,” who do not have official documentation because they were born outside of the country’s birth limit.
According to CNN, the country’s National Healthcare Security Administration said in February that the country’s insurance policy would support couples trying to conceive:
It said the new coverage would include assisted reproductive technology (ART) techniques and also cover labor analgesia to ease pain in childbirth. The most commonly performed ART procedure is in vitro fertilization (IVF).
It added that the falling population is hindering the country’s attempts to develop. The population reportedly fell by 850,000 to 1.4 billion in 2022, according to government statistics.
