[AFP views birth control policies, practices].

The Chinese authorities are pursuing an increasingly hardline birth control policy which includes sterilization and abortion. A new Chinese marriage law which becomes effective January 1 explicitly states that China's 120 million couples of childbearing age shall practice family planning. A great deal of financial, material, and social pressures (housing, education) are being exerted on young couples to have no more than 1 child. Couples who conceive after already having the 1st child are "persuaded" to undergo abortion. According to a study by the United Nations Fund for Population Activies (UNFPA), contraceptive pills are still little used in China; only 8-10% of couples are reportedly using them for contraception. The IUD or the loop is the most frequently used method, being used by 50% of couples practicing family planning. Other popular methods are sterilization usually by the woman (30%), the pill, the sheath (6%), the diaphragm and spermicidal gels (2-3%) and the monthly injection (1%). The study also showed that 70% of the 120 million couples, or 80 million couples in all, practice family planning. Abortion is considered as a contraceptive method in China, both in the cities and in the countryside.