In September 2021, the Chinese government released the new policy guideline on women, namely “Program for Women and Development (2021-2030)”. In the area of “Women and Health”, it states to “reduce abortions for non-medical reasons” as one of the strategies to meet the health target. This language triggers the vigilance of many feminists and SRHR advocates who depressingly foresee that over the next decade, access to abortion will be restricted to cases with medical indications. Undoubtedly, their concern is not groundless nor unnecessary, especially if we locate this set of policy changes in China in the broader global context of fierce anti-abortion, anti-gender ideology campaigns happening in Americas, Europe, and Africa. Although there are differences in the motivations and rationalities informing abortion politics in each country, whether for the benefit of state’s objectives (higher fertility) or else in the name of a moral mandate mostly deriving from Christian religious doctrines basis, this
potential unusual convergence tendency deserves more systematic research and critical reflections.
*Cai Yiping is a feminist activist and researcher actively engaging in women’s movements in China and internationally. She is an Executive Committee member of Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN), a network of feminist scholars, researchers, and activists from the economic South working for economic and gender justice and sustainable and democratic development. Her areas of focus include media and communications, gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive rights and health, and gender mainstreaming in development cooperation. Her current engagements cover the multiple processes in the national, regional, and global levels on the sustainable development agenda, ICPD 25, and Beijing+25 process. She lives in Beijing, China.