Beijing hospital lifts rule requiring employees to apply to get pregnant after public outcry
Doctors and nurses alike faced fines if they conceived without approval or if they failed to conceive within three months of getting approval
A Beijing hospital has, in the wake of public outrage, lifted its decade-long rule requiring its women employees to apply for permission to conceive a child.
Authorities in the Tongzhou Maternity and Child Health Institute said they would return all fines previously collected and its leaders would issue a public apology to those employees affected, The Beijing News reported.
Public outrage has been growing since Thursday after local media reported about hospital employees being fined for failing to conceive three months after receiving the hospital’s permission to have a child.
Under the rule imposed 10 years ago, both women doctors and nurses who planned to become pregnant were first required to submit an application to the hospital.
They were allowed to conceive only after receiving the hospital’s express approval. And upon receiving that approval, they were required to become pregnant within three months.