Forced abortions and the one-child policy are apparently just the tip of the iceberg in China, with local communist officials now refusing to register a family’s one and only child.
“When we went to register our child this January, with all the documents and formalities ready, the staff in the police station said we needed a seal from the Office of Family Planning (OFP) for the child to be registered,” a netizen told Qilu Evening News on Nov. 24. When the netizen’s wife went to the OFP to get the seal, she was told she had to get an intrauterine device (IUD) implant in order to receive the seal.
China’s Household Registration system is a form of census-taking and a way to keep track of households. Originally practiced in dynastic China, the system is now run by the Public Security Bureau, which keeps tabs on citizens by controlling and tracking their movements. If an individual is not registered, it’s as if he was never born.
Yi Jinson, another netizen, wrote about his experience on “Topic Today” on Nov. 19. Yi’s only child is already 1 year old and still has not been registered. “We have prepared everything: a marriage license, birth permit, and child birth certificate; and my child is the first child. But the local government asked for my wife to get an IUD implanted. Only after she proves that it has been inserted can the child be registered.”
This IUD policy is becoming more widespread with several media reports surfacing throughout China. Some people even get fined for not having the procedure done.
“It’s not only a rule for the small place we live in, but I found on the Internet that many places, like Hubei, Jiangxi, Henan Provinces, have the same rule,” said Yi.
Most netizens shared that they needed “opinions” from the OFP before they could submit their child’s papers for Household Registration. And the opinion from the OFP is usually; “We'll give you our opinion after the IUD is inserted. If you don’t insert one, we can’t give you our opinion.”
The Xijiang Daily reported on Nov. 26 that even though some people have registered their child without fulfilling the IUD requirement, authorities catch up with them when the child is ready to start school. The education department also serves as a “checkpoint” for enforcement of the IUD policy. Children in some places cannot attend school until the parents produce a family planning certificate, which is only issued after the mother has an IUD inserted.
China’s Family Planning Commission and Ministry of Health previously issued reports providing statistical data, which demonstrates the massive number of women undergoing IUD implants.
In 2006, China’s National Population and Family Planning Commission reported that in China, 114 million out of 230 million married women (or 49.79 percent) have IUD implants.
The “2010 China Health Statistics Yearbook” released by China’s Ministry of Health showed that IUD procedures accounted for 30 to 40 percent of total contraceptive operations every year since 1983. There have been between 6 and 8 million IUD procedures performed every year since 2000. And there were 7,818,000 cases in 2009 alone, the highest number of procedures after 2000.
Many parents feel puzzled as they do not have more than one child, so why does the Household Registration have anything to do with the OFP?
Twitter user Jiang Tianyong wrote two messages about this issue:
“After reading this investigation report, it reminded me of the CCTV female reporter, who held a microphone chasing people around to ask them, ‘Are you happy?’ I wanted to ask her in person, ‘CCTV female reporter, have you been inserted with an IUD? Are you happy when something is stuffed in your lower abdomen?’”
“Let’s ask together: ‘CCTV female reporter, have you been inserted with an IUD? Chinese women, do you have dignity?' Chinese men, ask the women beside you, ‘Are you happy after being inserted with IUDs?’”
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