Abortion in China

Abortion in the People's Republic of China is legal at all stages of pregnancy and generally accessible nationwide. Abortions are available to most women through China's family planning program, public hospitals, private hospitals, and clinics nationwide. Following the Chinese Communist Revolution and the proclamation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the country has periodically switched between more restrictive abortion policies to more liberal abortion policies and reversals. Abortion regulations may vary depending on the rules of the province. In an effort to curb sex-selective abortion, Jiangxi and Guizhou restrict non-medically necessary abortions after 14 weeks of pregnancy, while throughout most of China abortions are legal after 14 weeks. Although sex-selective abortions are illegal nationwide, they were previously commonplace, leading to a sex-ratio imbalance in China which still exists.

In the past, virtually universal access to contraception and abortion for its citizens by a national government service was a common way for China to contain its population in accordance with its now-defunct one-child policy. It was scaled back when the policy was removed in 2015 in favor of a two-child policy and in turn was replaced by a three-child policy in 2021. In 2021, China announced it would reduce abortions for non-medical purposes. In 2022, in an effort to boost the country's birth rate, the National Health Commission announced that it would direct measures toward reducing non-medically necessary abortions through a number of measures, including expanded pre-pregnancy healthcare, infant care services, and local government efforts to boost family-friendly work places. The National Health Authority also said it would guide local governments to gradually include assisted reproductive technology in its national medical system, because technology such as IVF is typically very expensive in China and hardly accessible to unmarried women. The policy was viewed as a response to China's declining birth rate. In 2023, a court ruled in favor of spousal consent for abortion.