Fury on China social media as woman aborts baby after boyfriend refuses to pay US$31,000 bride price
- Divorcees agree to marry, bride price set, husband-to-be keeps delaying
- Man says he wants cash to fix mother’s house, woman has abortion
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A 35-year-old woman who aborted her five-month-old fetus after her boyfriend refused to pay an agreed bride price of 220,000 yuan (US$31,000) has sparked debate on mainland social media.
Tingting, from Fujian province in southeastern China, who has two children from a previous marriage, became pregnant two months after starting a relationship in August 2023.
When her boyfriend, Liang, who promised to marry her, delayed paying the agreed bride price, Tingting ended her pregnancy at the five-month gestation period, Shanghai Morning Post reported.
Tingting said that, in October 2023, Liang and his family told her they had made sure they could afford the 220,000-yuan bride price.
However, because Liang kept his money in the bank to invest in wealth management products, he could not give her the bride price until December.
“Can you wait for two more months?” Liang asked Tingting.
She agreed she would wait, but suggested he pay part of the bride price and get a marriage licence. Liang refused and again asked her to wait.
“OK, I will wait,” Tingting told Liang, who had also been married before.
The pregnant bride-to-be was immersed in happiness and looking forward to starting a new life with her new man.
As soon as December approached, she pressed Liang again about the bride price, but noticed he kept avoiding the conversation.
Tingting was surprised when Liang told her his mother was preparing to use the money to renovate her home.
“Is her home renovation more important than us getting married?” she asked him.
Tingting had already agreed that after they married she would be willing to share some of the bride price with his mother for her home.
“It’s our joint property, so you can use it,” she said.
In the end, Liang did not pay her the money, explaining that he was worried her family would give it to their son who was also planning to get married.
“My parents promise that they will not take the bride price from me,” Tingting assured him.
At this point Tingting told Liang she would end her pregnancy.
Although he did not support her decision, she went ahead with the termination at the beginning of this year. Then she left him.
However, she kept asking him for an apology and compensation.
The story has divided opinion on mainland social media.
“Aborting the baby is right, otherwise she and the baby would suffer,” one online observer said.
“The bride price is too huge, isn’t it?” said another.
Bride price disputes often go viral in China.
In July 2023, a man who complained on a government website about being asked to pay 288,000 yuan (US$40,000) by his girlfriend’s parents, was widely ridiculed on mainland social media.
A month earlier, a man broke up with his girlfriend after her parents demanded a bride price of 380,000 yuan (US$53,000).
Men in China customarily pay the woman’s family a bride price of between 10,000 and one million yuan, but the government has taken steps to reform such wedding traditions.
In February, a local authority in southern China introduced an incentive scheme for newlywed families to cap the bride price at 39,000 yuan by offering them top priority in the choice of school for their children.
