11.01.2010 China’s Abortion Policy Creating Nation of Bachelors

January 11, 2010

China's Abortion Policy Creating Nation of Bachelors

Beijing, China (LifeNews.com) — A new report indicates the one-child family planning policy in China — which has given way to sex-selection abortions and infanticides of girl babies — has created a nation of bachelors. The report says more than 24 million men may be unable to find a bride by the end of the decade.

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, described as the nation's leading think-tank, issued the report.

It describes the tremendous gender imbalance the pro-abortion policy has created as the most serious demographic problem facing China.

According to a London Times story, the new report describes the bachelors as bare branches because they will be unable to complete a family tree beyond themselves.

The gender imbalance and the bachelor-driven society it has created is resulting in a host of social problems, the report indicates, ranging from prostitution to increased crime and violence, to social instability.

The report, issued by the communist agency, is surprising for how candidly it admits the problems resulting from the one-child policy, the Times indicates.

Sex-specific abortions remained extremely commonplace, especially in rural areas, the report says. The problem is more serious in rural areas due to the lack of a social security system. Ageing farmers have to rely on their offspring.

The new Chinese report notes how the introduction of ultrasound made the problem worse because medical workers and those operating in the black market could more easily identify female unborn children and target them with abortions and infanticide.

The normal male-female ratio began to shift in the 1980s and it rose from 108 boys in 1982 to 111 in 1990 and 116 a decade later.

The British Medical Journal issued its own report last year with the ominous observation: Nothing can be done now to prevent this imminent generation of excess men.

The new report indicates the figure has climbed to 120 boys born for every 100 girls as of 2006 and says that, by the end of 2008, there were 38 million more men in China than women born after 1980.

Wang Yuesheng, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that the disparity has real problems.

The chance of getting married will be rare if a man is more than 40 years old in the countryside. They will be more dependent on social security as they age and have fewer household resources to rely on," he said, according to the Times.

That doesn't bode well for the Chinese economy and government as it will face more pressure to care for single men who have no family of their own under them to care for them as they grow older.

Some economists and researchers say China should reverse its one-child policy or face certain economic problems in coming decades.