50% Off Base: Why the West Gets China’s Abortion Discounts Wrong

Recently an ad in a Chinese newspaper caught the attention of bloggers in America. What was this controversial ad? It was something that most of us living her have seen quite often. No, not ads for massage or KTV or miracle weight loss drugs, but an ad for a hospital, offering a special promotion on abortions. The promotion in question offered a 50% discount to girls who presented a student ID to the hospital, and was criticized by the western press.

Ads for abortion and plastic surgery clinics. Photo: peruisay

For those of us from countries like America, which has, at best, an uneasy relationship with abortion, it is hard not to be a bit put off by the very direct way in which abortion is confronted in China. I remember the first time I saw a big billboard in Kunming advertising painless abortions, and I remember thinking how tactless it seemed. There was a picture of a happy girl reclining on a bed, obviously worry-free because she’d gotten a quick, easy and pain free abortion. Later on, when my Chinese ability got better, I remember recognizing abortion ads on TV. One in particular showed a girl waking up in a hospital and asking the nurses “Has it started yet?” The nurses smile knowingly, pat her on the hand, and say “It’s already over!” Abortions are just that easy was the message the ad seemed to send.

And in China, they are. Newly pregnant with my son, I went to the hospital for a checkup, and the vast majority of women visiting the OBGYN were young, college or even high school students, accompanied by their boyfriends, best friends, but never their mothers. In a country where birth control is readily available, many young women still hesitate to take advantage of it – some fear “losing face” by buying birth control at the pharmacy. The monthly pill is available, but not often utilized among sexually active students, due to the misconception that only sluts need the pill. Condoms are seen as a man’s responsibility, and many young women are too shy or embarrassed to bring them up. In a country where birth control is much easier for young people to obtain than it is in say, America, abortion is still startlingly common among young people. The main obstacle, perhaps, is price.

However, setting aside the issue of birth control for a moment, the outrage over the ad for half priced abortions is a tad misplaced considering the cultural context. Certainly such an ad might be bold and direct, even tactless, but the concept takes into account certain realities about Chinese society and the place of abortion in this society. While America has, even for a western country, an extremely conservative attitude towards abortion, China does not have the same cultural and religious hang ups about abortion. Abortion has been safe, affordable, and relatively controversy free in China for many years. There are no protestors outside of clinics, and, for better or worse, “abortion” is not a bad word in Chinese society, whereas single motherhood certainly is. While a woman in America with an unwanted pregnancy may choose, rather than abortion, to give her baby up for adoption or to raise it herself, a young Chinese woman does not have the same luxuries.

For most young Chinese, even a high school education is a privilege that requires years of hard work and good grades on an entrance exam qualifying one for a higher education. University education requires even more dedication and hard work, and millions of Chinese teenagers devote years to preparing for the test that will decide their future. Once they have secured a place among the academic elite, they will not give it up easily. Single motherhood, and especially teenaged or college aged single motherhood, is absolutely not acceptable on China’s campuses. As I wrote about recently, high school students can find themselves suspended or expelled simply for being suspected of having sexual relationships, and pregnancy is a one-way ticket out of the classroom. There are no special schools for teen mothers, no extension programs, no programs that allow people to earn high school equivalency degrees. Pregnancy, quite simply, would mean the end of one’s education, most likely for good.