Why Alabama’s new abortion ban has touched a raw nerve in China
- Country’s own history of top-down population control, including the one-child policy, means the issue resonates with many people in China
Between news about local celebrity gossip and hit television series Game of Thrones, one surprising topic has been trending on Chinese social media: the controversial new abortion law in the US state of Alabama.
Posts on the topic have been read more than 160 million times on Weibo and attracted many comments expressing anger at the law, which outlaws the procedure in almost all cases – even in the event of incest or rape – and has prompted widespread criticism in the US.
The US has been tightening laws on abortions this year, with 21 states expressing “hostile” or “very hostile” attitudes towards abortion this year, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organisation on sexual and reproductive health based in the US.
Academics said that China’s own history of government control of women’s fertility – including the notorious one-child policy under which many women were forced to have abortions – meant that the issue struck a chord with many people there.
Liang Zhongtang, a demographer from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said abortion has been used as a top-down policy tool to control and manage the population.
“Many of our basic human rights in China aren’t ensured, the government has always decided on people’s reproductive rights based on its need,” he said.