China Limits Vasectomies. NewsWire

NewsWire: 1/5/22

• China is limiting access to vasectomies as it tries to boost the birthrate. The procedure has not officially been banned but is “discouraged.” (The Washington Post)
• NH: Last month, we told readers about Iran’s pivot from carrot-style pronatalist policies to sticks. (See “Iran Takes a Hard Line on Pronatalism.”) At the time, we said it was the only country that was emphasizing restrictive measures in order to boost the birthrate.
• But it turns out China has pivoted, too. As the country has loosened family planning rules, starting with the two-child policy in 2016, many hospitals have stopped offering vasectomies out of fear of running afoul of the government’s newer and tougher pronatalism.  While the procedure is not officially banned, doctors and hospital staff are refusing to perform it or limiting access by, for example, requiring a proof of marriage certificate.
• Out of 18 public hospitals across China the Post contacted, 12 no longer offered vasectomies. Six hospitals said they still performed the surgery, but one said it was no longer offered to unmarried men. From 2015 to 2019, the number of vasectomies performed in China tumbled from 149,432 to just 4,742.
• With China ramping up its pronatalist measures with increasing urgency, some argue that it’s only a matter of time before these measures turn coercive (see "Will China Drop All Birth Restrictions?"), given China’s long history of population control. If it weren’t clear enough already that the CCP is hellbent on fending off population decline, an editorial that was recently published on a state-run news website proclaimed that CCP members “should shoulder the responsibility and obligation of the country’s population growth” and have at least three children--and if they’re unable to have children, to encourage their family members and friends to do so. The op-ed was later deleted, but not until after it attracted thousands of critical comments on Weibo.
• Last fall, officials announced plans to decrease the number of “non-medical” abortions (see “China Plans to Curb Abortions”), but didn’t specify how this would be accomplished. I would not be surprised if abortions were similarly “discouraged” under ever-more limited conditions.