title: Induced abortion patterns and determinants among married women in China: 1979 to 2010.
abstract: China has launched the one-child policy to control its rapidly expanding population since 1979. Local governments, tasked with limiting regional birth rates, commonly imposed induced abortions. After 1994, China's family planning policy was relatively loosened and mandatory induced abortion gradually gave way to client-centered and informed-choice contraceptive policy and the "Compensation" Fee policy. This study assesses trends in and determinants of induced abortion among married women aged 20-49 in China from 1979 to 2010, using data from national statistics and nationally representative sample surveys. The incidence of induced abortions among married women aged 20-49 began to decrease in the mid-1990s. The induced abortion rate reached its highest level in the early 1980s (56.07%) and its lowest level in the 2000s (18.04%), with an average annual rate of 28.95% among married women 20-49 years old. The likelihood of a pregnant woman undergoing an induced abortion during this period depended not only on individual characteristics (including ethnicity, age, education level, household registration, number of children, and sex of children), but also on the stringency of the family planning policy in place. The less stringent the family planning policy, the less likely married women were to undergo an induced abortion.
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, School of Social Development, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China;; and Post-doctoral researcher, Department of Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, USA. Electronic address: wctpku@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Cuntong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000028:Abortion, Induced / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends*; D000328:Adult; D001723:Birth Rate; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D003267:Contraception / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003906:Developing Countries; D016656:Family Planning Policy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008393:Marriage; D008875:Middle Aged; D009863:Only Child; D011247:Pregnancy; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012922:Social Change; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: China; determinants; family planning policy; induced abortion; married women; trends