How has the picture for birth control and maternal health changed over the years in China?
As of 2015, China had the highest rate of contraceptive use in the world, defined as the percentage of women currently using any method of contraception among all women of reproductive age who are married or in a union, according to the UN. Procedures like female sterilisation and abortion rank among the most common means of preventing unwanted births, while less-drastic options like pills only made up 1% of all methods, compared to 17% and 20% in North America and Europe, respectively, despite the pill having entered China as early as the mid-1960s.
Maternal affairs, sponsored by Bayer China and produced by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), explores how birth control and maternal health has changed over the years in China.
