Current Events

On random days, housekeeping leaves a fresh copy of the China Daily on our coffee table. This is the English language daily of the country, and if it is not run by the government then Beijing at least holds a strong hand over what it prints. We find the news in it uninteresting or of no consequence at best. At worst, well, check out this article. My comments are below it, and I've inserted the italics:


Experts: Pills key to curbing abortions
By Chen Hong (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-10-24 07:27

Information about contraception should be made widely available to the public to help reduce the frequency of abortions, experts said.
"Though no official figures are available, the abortion rate in China is believed to be high and shows no signs of falling," Wu Shangchun, a researcher with the Institute of Scientific Research of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, said recently.
"One of the main reasons for this situation is that people do not know enough about contraception," Wu said.
"We advise women in steady relationships who do not have children to take oral contraception (OC) pills as the first option. Our studies show that less than 2 percent of Chinese women aged from 18 to 44 take the pills," the researcher said.
The Netherlands leads the world in the use of OC pills, with 36 percent of the women aged 15 to 44 taking the medication. France rates second with 30 percent, according to figures provided by Organon, a pharmaceutical company, in a recent report.
As a result, the abortion rates in those countries are quite low - 0.51 percent in The Netherlands and 1.33 percent in France. The rate is 8.4 percent in Japan, where just 1 percent of women take OC pills, and 2.8 percent in the United States, where 9 percent take them.
However, in China, condoms are widely perceived as the most reliable contraception method, according to a month-long online survey conducted by the women-oriented portal of Sina.com and Organon.
About 65 percent of the survey's 4,281 respondents, of whom 43.3 percent were male, said condoms were the most reliable contraception method, followed by intrauterine devices (IUDs) with 12.1 percent, which Wu said could be a reflection of the influence of the former national family planning policy, which favored those methods.
About 11.5 percent of the respondents said they relied on external ejaculation, while almost 4 percent said they just timed their intercourse to coincide with those times when it was least likely for a woman to become pregnant. Wu said the latter method, commonly known as the safety period, is not safe at all.
Zheng Shurong, a veteran gynecologist with Peking University First Hospital, said OC pills are 10 to 15 times more reliable than condoms, and 1.5 to 4 times more reliable than IUDs.
"It will take time to educate the women in our nation to accept OC pills because they have many deep-rooted misunderstandings.
They worry about the side effects and weight gain, believe the pills could affect their fertility and cause birth defects," Zheng said.
A research report by the World Health Organization indicated that about 10 percent of women face a higher risk of uterine or breast cancer after taking pills. But those at risk can simply stop taking the pills.
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I found this article amazing. Many of you may not realize that China still holds and often enforces a strict 1-child policy. If a woman becomes pregnant with her second child, the government can - and often will - suggest, and then force an abortion. This at any time during the pregnancy. Even the 9th month.

Yet this article talks about abortion as a national problem that must be curbed. One of the main reasons for the high abortion rate, according to the article, is not that they are mandated by the government, but that people do not know enough about contraception.

The article goes on to support that the people do not know about contraception, citing that 15% of those surveyed rely upon external ejaculation and timing intercourse. External ejaculation is adolescent and timing is outdated, granola, or adolescent. Of course, the article also does not mention that external ejaculation and timing are both free forms of birth control, and with this communist state no longer covering medical care, I'm surprised that only 15% choose such cost-effective means.

Of course, the misinformation of the masses is nothing compared to the misinformation of the reporter and her sources. Cited above, Zheng Shurong, the veteran gynecologist with Peking University First Hospital (a university hospital, no less!) said that oral contraceptive pills are 10-15 times more reliable than condoms and 1.5 to 4 times more reliable than IUDs. An example of fuzzy math. Here are the facts, as provided to me by both my gynecologist and the piles of literature she provided me when I received my IUD.
- Condoms are in the 90% range of reliability.
- Birth control pills, when taken perfectly, are about 98% effective.
- An IUD is 99.9% effective.

The 20% of respondents on this hardly scientific survey who apparently do not use any form of birth control may need some of Dr. Shurong's mildly incorrect advise. But what the people probably need more is a national policy which allows a man and woman to manage their own family planning, and does not actively encourage abortions.