HONG KONG: A member of China’s top political advisory body said he would propose allowing unmarried women access to egg freezing as a measure to preserve their fertility after the country’s population plunged last year for the first time in six decades.
Lu Weiying, a member of China’s top political advisory body, told the state-backed Global Times that he would also propose including infertility treatments in the public health insurance system at the upcoming Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which begins on March 4. .
Lu, a fertility doctor in southern China’s Hainan province, said giving single women access to freezing their eggs allows them to “preserve the eggs before they are past their peak reproductive years.” “The woman still needs to get married if she wants to use her frozen eggs and get pregnant in the future,” she told the Global Times.
Currently, fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization (IVF) and egg freezing in China are prohibited for single women.
Lu’s recommendations come as authorities try to boost a faltering birth rate with incentives that include expanded maternity leave, financial and tax benefits for having children, as well as housing subsidies.
