BEIJING, CHINA. Xinhua News Agency reported today that China will move to a two-child policy for all couples, “abandoning its decades-long one-child policy.”

Characterizing this latest modification as “abandoning” the One-Child Policy is misleading. A two-child policy will not end any of the human rights abuses caused by the One Child Policy, including forced abortion, involuntary sterilization or the sex-selective abortion of baby girls.

The reason given for this adjustment is entirely demographic: “to balance population development and address the challenge of an ageing population.” The adjustment is a tacit admission that continuation of the one-child policy will lead to economic and demographic disaster. The policy was originally instituted for economic reasons. It is ironic that through this very policy, China has written its own economic death sentence.

Read the article “China’s New Two-Child Policy Will Not End Forced Abortion or Gendercide” on womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org.