China scraps one-child policy after more than three decades, Yet Planned Babies Remain Serious Business

  

China has decided to scrap its one-child policy, one of the most draconian social experiments in modern history that has been the focus of criticism overseas and resentment at home for decades. 

This means that all couples would be allowed to have two children, more than three decades after Beijing adopted a policy limiting most of the country to only one child.  

Beijing has been under pressure domestically to end the one-child policy because it   contributed to the ageing of society and led to a shortage of workers at a time when China is experiencing an economic slowdown. 

Although China lifted the One Child Policy more than a year ago, companies and organizations still haven’t quite warmed up to the new rules, with a ‘second baby boom’ now leading to serious understaffing, especially among female employees.

That was the problem facing the urological department at the famed Tangdu Hospital in Xi’an this year. And the hospital tried to deal with it in a very old-fashioned way: through centrally planned reproduction for the department’s young nurses. 

In March, its reported that, after four of the 14 nurses announced they were expecting a baby in the coming year, the department asked their remaining colleagues to agree to a schedule regulating their future pregnancies, to ensure there was always sufficient staff in the hospital.

When one of the nurses, Mrs. Guo, accidentally conceived a second child in July, the hospital told her that if she didn’t follow the planned schedule, she should resign immediately or seek an abortion. 

Guo said she had signed the deal, and even considered giving up her baby. But aged 35, she decided to keep it and sacrifice her work instead. Guo said she wasn’t fired but her name was taken off the planning. All her bonuses were gone and she has been only receiving minimum wage.

In another high-profile case a few months ago, a Beijing hospital tried to fire a nurse who got pregnant when the hospital was short-handed. The case got heavy coverage in Western and local media, which eventually led the hospital to reverse its decision to fine the nurse.