BEIJING – An unmarried Chinese woman on Tuesday filed her latest appeal against a hospital’s denial of access to freeze her eggs five years ago in a landmark case of women’s reproductive rights in the country.
Teresa Xu’s case has received widespread coverage in China, including by some state media, since she first brought her case to court in 2019. She lost her legal challenge last year before another Beijing court, which ruled that the hospital’s decision had not violated the woman’s rights.
The upcoming ruling will have a major impact on the lives of many unmarried women in China and the country’s demographic transition, especially after the world’s second largest economy has witnessed it first population decline in decades.
In China, the law does not specifically prohibit unmarried people from receiving services such as fertility treatments, only stating that a “husband and wife” can have up to three children. But hospitals and other institutions implement the regulations in practice, requiring people to present a marriage certificate.
Xu, who wanted to preserve her eggs so she could have children later, is one of those who is struggling to access fertility treatment.
In 2018, Xu, then 30, went to a public hospital in Beijing to ask about freezing her eggs. But after an initial investigation, she was told she could not proceed without a marriage license.
According to the verdict she received last year, the hospital argued that egg freezing poses certain health risks. Egg freezing is only available to women who are unable to conceive naturally and not to healthy patients.
However, it also found that delaying pregnancy could pose risks for the mother during pregnancy and “psychological and societal problems” when there is a large age difference between parents and their child.
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