Women Across China Say They Are Getting Calls About Their Pregnancy Plans

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Women around China have taken to social media to share their experiences of receiving calls asking about their reproductive plans. Photo: AI generated

In the months that followed her marriage last September, Lizi received repeated phone calls from her community. They had one question: “Are you pregnant yet?”

Already frustrated by the pressure to have a child coming from her relatives, the young woman living in East China’s Fujian province finally told the caller she had no plans to get pregnant this year.

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Women in China, like Lizi and Liu Chen, report being questioned about their reproductive plans by grassroots workers, reflecting a trend of official monitoring prompted by falling birth rates.
Local family planning offices gather marriage and birth data to monitor fertility, focusing efforts on encouraging childbearing amid a declining population since 2017.
Over 30 Chinese cities have introduced subsidies and incentives to promote having more children, but no official targets for birth rates have been set.

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