On its face, the previous "one-child" policy was intended to address the Chinese government’s concern over its growing population. But the policy had often been viewed as somewhat of an anomaly—as it simultaneously increased access to reproductive health services, particularly contraception, yet essentially impeded individual freedom by taking away a woman’s right to control her own fertility. Last week’s shift from policy to law should increase scrutiny over the efficacy of China’s law and the long term human rights implications of trying to enforce such stringent family planning measures.

"The new law has some positive, women-friendly features, but it is fraught with inconsistent and contradictory restrictions that ultimately compromise women’s freedom and equality," said Melissa Upreti, the Center for Reproductive Rights' Legal Adviser for Asia. "Chinese women are required to bear a disproportionate burden of their country’s development goals at the expense of their human rights," she continued.

The Center for Reproductive Rights is finalizing an analysis of both the beneficial and potentially dangerous aspects of this law, a briefing paper that will be released in fall 2002.

In the interim, the following are some of the positive and potentially problematic features of the new law:

Positive features of the new law:

• Requires population and family planning activities to proceed hand in hand with efforts aimed at educating women, providing jobs, improving women’s health and improving women’s status

• Prohibits discrimination against and the maltreatment of women who give birth to female children and women who are infertile

• Bans discrimination against, and maltreatment and abandonment of, female infants

• Calls for special labor protections, including assistance and compensation, for women during pregnancy and childbirth and when they are breast-feeding

• Requires not only wives but also husbands, to bear the responsibility of family planning

• Discourages early marriage

• Requires schools to provide sex education

• Requires the state to create conditions for educating citizens and enabling them to select safe, effective and appropriate contraceptive measures and that guarantee the safety of people who undergo surgical sterilization

• Articulates the right of couples to enjoy free family planning services at state outlets

• Provides that family planning workers may be investigated and punished for infringing upon citizens’ personal rights and property; abusing their power; and seeking or accepting bribes

• Requires the state to advocate new family planning methods and to conduct research

Problematic features of the new law:

• Upholds the one-child policy for married couples, allowing for a second child only if they fall within one of the few exceptions

• Prescribes having more than one child as a criminal act, punishable by way of a fine for those who do not fit within the limited exceptions

• Mandates the creation of "detailed population control" quotas in all family planning and population measures

• Creates ample access to family planning services for couples, but nowhere in the law are the rights of adolescents, or single people, to family planning services and information discussed and affirmed

• Prohibits sex determination and sex selective abortion

• Creates a scheme of incentives and disincentives by specifically rewarding parents who have one child, ( for example, by granting them preferential treatment in the administration of loans, poverty relief initiatives, and social welfare programs).