Free student abortions may further 'rash sex'

A proposal that encourages public hospitals to give free abortions to college students has divided the public on the sensitive issue, with a majority of people knocking such a practice, worried it would only lead to more irresponsible sex among youth, while others believe that young people need affordable medical support more than ever after encountering unplanned pregnancies.

Wei Aimin, a deputy of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress, is proposing that public hospitals provide the service for free or charge only a nominal fee, saying that private hospitals are taking advantage of young women left in a vulnerable situation by targeting abortion advertisements at college students.

'Inappropriate encouragement'

Wei said that the slogans used for media adverts, particularly at the end of winter and spring holidays - when the number of students seeking abortions spikes nationwide - wrongly sell the procedure as a "pain-free" solution, for which a number of private hospitals are not qualified to carry out safely.

"Students who get pregnant by accident are so afraid of their parents finding out that they are lured into these private hospitals, many of which are not licensed, and this increases their risk of incurring complications from the procedure, which has had serious impacts on students' physical and mental health," he told the Global Times on Tuesday.

But critics, especially parents, have voiced concern over the idea, saying that if such a proposal were put into practice, it would only encourage students to have more irresponsible sex, given that they would be able to "quickly solve their unexpected problem."

"If anything, we should be charging a lot more for abortions. At the very least, it will (financially) scare off young people from having unsafe sex," said a Net user from Hunan Province.

Society's burden?

But others onoline argued that it's people's mind-sets that need to adjust to the reality of the situation.

"Just because society doesn't tolerate unwed pregnant girls doesn't mean that they don't still need our help in preserving their dignity," said a Net user from Jilin province.

Peng Jiahui, a professor of sexology at Central China Normal University and a supporter of Wei's proposal, meanwhile, said on Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter, that not until the issue of student abortion becomes a societal issue will society focus on how to address the problem while keeping abortion costs low for those who opt to have the procedure done.

However, Xu Yun, head of gynecology at Changzhou No.1 People's Hospital in Jiangsu province, who has come across countless pregnant students in distress at work, doubted that the proposal, even if adopted into practice, would have much of an impact on the reported growing number of students seeking abortions, for which no recent official figure has been released.

"Students wanting an abortion are most concerned about hiding it from their parents," Xu told the Global Times on Tuesday. "They would rather pay to have the procedure done at a private hospital, which will not require them to register for the abortion."

Yet even temporarily setting aside the issue of free or lost-cost abortions, looking ahead, Peng argued that students would remain incapable of leading responsible sex lives in the future without access to a proper sex education from an early age.

"Sex education should start from junior high school, when students reach the age of sexual maturity," said Peng. "While sexology should be a compulsory course for all students at university."