Officials in the Chinese city of Wuhan announced plans to levy fines against women having children outside of marriage.
Officials in the Chinese city of Wuhan announced plans to levy fines against women having children outside of marriage.
The fines could reach around 25 thousand dollars, which is 6 times the average annual disposable income in the city.
The goal of the steep penalty is to keep the birth rate low by further discouraging women from having unplanned babies out of wedlock.
Women most likely to incur the exorbitant fees are those who can’t prove who the birth father is or who are having the child of a married man.
Critics of the plan say it will lead to even more babies being abandoned.
Recently, one woman reportedly shunned by the father was the subject of intense media coverage when her baby was discovered in a sewer pipe, an event authorities have since determined to be an accident.
Sadly, abandoned babies are not uncommon throughout the country, a reality most often attributed to China’s controversial policy that limits many to having only a single offspring.
According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, in 2010 there were 655 thousand parentless children in China being subsidized by its government.
