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MEDIA CENTER China’s Birth Policies Shift Toward Client-centered Care NEW YORK (31 October 2002) — China’s restrictive birth planning policies—long criticized by human rights advocates as coercive—have begun to show signs of liberalization. According to an analysis published in Population and Development Review, a journal of the Population Council, two recent documents, a decision from 2000 and a law passed in December 2001, mark a significant shift from simply limiting births to delivering reproductive health services as well. The article, by Edwin A. Winckler, traces a trend that began in the 1990s as fertility levels in China fell. Although the state birth planning program never abandoned the goal of limiting births, it began a gradual reform of its policies, incorporating international ideals of quality care, informed choice, and women’s empowerment. The new law, which Winckler has translated into English and included as an appendix to his article, emphasizes increasing the positive effects of the state birth planning policies, such as helping women benefit from development. Starting around 1995, the state birth planning program developed projects to raise women’s status, promote their education, and increase their economic participation. “Quality of care” quickly became a widespread concern in service delivery. Clients began to receive better counseling and some choice of contraceptive method; program workers were trained to provide these expanded services. Also, newly married couples were allowed to have their first child whenever they wanted, without applying for permission. According to Winckler, these late-1990s reforms will be instituted nationwide in the early 2000s. The author cautions that the full impact of the new documents will be limited by on-the-ground realities, such as a lack of funding and personnel. Thus the program’s effect will be influenced by the level of economic development in the different regions. In wealthier regions, for example, where the program is well funded, couples may have access to more reproductive health services than in the countryside. Despite this new approach that is more in line with international standards, China’s birth policies continue to provoke criticism from abroad. The U.S. has withheld funds from UNFPA (The United Nations Population Fund) because it continues to work in China. UNFPA does not consider China to be in full compliance with international standards, Winckler notes, but its international board would rather continue working to improve things than to withdraw in protest. Edwin A. Winckler is Research Associate, East Asian Institute, Columbia University. Population and Development Review, Vol. 28 No. 3, September 2002, also includes Notes and Commentary, Data and Perspectives, Archives, Book Reviews, and Documents.
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