Unmarried Mothers To Be Fined In Chinese City To Cut Size Of Population

Unmarried mothers to be FINED in Chinese
city to cut size of population
Wuhan city says the fine and rule is aimed at
keeping the birth rate low
Policy also includes those who knowingly
have a child with a married person
Critics say the prohibitive fine could lead to
more abandoned 'sewer babies'
A Chinese city plans to fine mothers who
have a child out of wedlock, sparking
criticism that the policy is discriminatory and
could lead to an increase in abandoned
babies.
Wuhan city says the rule is aimed at keeping
the birth rate low.
One expert says it is the first time that out-
of-wedlock children have been expressly
singled out for penalty by one of China's
municipalities, which have flexibility in how
they enforce national population-control
policies.
Wuhan city's policy to fine single mothers
follows the rescue of Baby 59, whose mother
took days to come forward after he slipped
down a sewer pipe
It comes days after the rescue of a young
single mother's newborn from a sewer pipe
in eastern China prompted discussion over
the stigma that single mothers face.
'If the policy is approved, there could be
more "sewer babies" because when mothers
can't afford the cost, they might think about
throwing their babies away,' said Chen Yaya,
a gender equality researcher at the Shanghai
Academy of Social Sciences.
On Friday, the government of the city, in
central Hubei, published online a draft
updated family planning policy which it says
is aimed at keeping the city's birth rate at a
low level.
The policy says that 'the parties' should pay
the fee in cases of births that are out of
wedlock or when one side knowingly has a
child with someone who has a spouse.
It has been interpreted in state media as
mainly targeting unmarried mothers and
women who have affairs with married men.
The public has a week to comment on it.
'It looks like the policy is targeted just at
women from my understanding,' Chen said.
She said unmarried mothers already faced
discrimination, including being barred from
receiving maternity benefits from the
government.
Unmarried mothers also face stigma because
premarital sex traditionally has been
frowned upon.
In the case of the baby found in the sewer in
Zhejiang province on May 25, his mother
told police she got pregnant after a brief
affair, could not afford an abortion, hid her
pregnancy from family and neighbours and
had concerns about whether she would be
able to raise the child.
Police also said she told them the baby
slipped into the sewer accidentally shortly
after its birth, an account they later said they
accepted.
Wuhan's proposed rule would be the first
time that bearing a child when unmarried
has been spelled out as a separate offence,
said Yuan Xin, a professor of population
studies at Renmin University.
Gender equality researcher Chen Yaya said
the policy could produce more 'sewer babies'
if mothers cannot afford the cost of the fine
'In fact, a lot of family planning regulations
have included unmarried childbearing under
illegal childbearing. They were just not
specified as a separate term as is the case
this time with Wuhan,' he said.
'We need to distinguish between the legal
and moral aspects and define what a family
is nowadays, said Yuan.
'Let's say I am single, and I want to have a
child. Is that wrong? No, it's not, so is it
considered a family?
'Having a baby with a married man, is that
considered a family? All these details need
to be specified.'
Babies resulting from an unmarried
relationship or an affair with someone who
is already married will provoke a 'social
compensation fee', an official at the family
planning committee of Wuhan said.
Social compensation fees are levied on
people who break China's strict family
planning policy, which restricts many urban
couples to one child.
The fee depends on the province and the
whim of the local family planning bureau,
and the children are denied education and
health benefits.
Hubei province sets its social compensation
fee at three times average annual disposable
income.