China says it's restricting abortions to promote gender equality. Experts are skeptical

For decades, Chinese authorities imposed strict limits on families that forced millions of women to abort pregnancies deemed illegal by the state. That harsh practice has become less common since China relaxed its one-child policy in 2015. So when news emerged this week that the government wants to reduce abortions for "non-medical reasons," the backlash was swift and furious.

Chinese social media was flooded with comments from women fed up with what they see as government efforts to control their bodies, describing the apparent U-turn on abortion as a desperate attempt to boost the country's dwindling birth rates. "The female body has become a tool," said one top comment on Weibo, China's Twitter-like platform. "When (the state) wants you to bear a child, you must do it at all cost. When (the state) doesn't want it, you're not allowed to give birth even at the risk of death."

The abortion policy was included in an expansive government blueprint to further women's rights over the next decade, covering areas ranging from education to employment, which state-run media boasted would improve gender equality "to a higher level in the new era."

Read more