Millions of Chinese Women Busy Removing Intra-Uterine Devices

With the Chinese Government relaxing its controversial one child policy, millions of women are approaching hospitals to get their intrauterine devices removed. Chinese women had to implanted contraceptive devices to prevent child birth due to the draconian one-child policy.

"As many as 3.5 million women had their intrauterine devices removed by local health authorities last year and more are expected to do so this year," Song Li, deputy head of maternal and infant health-care at the National Health and Family Planning Commission said.

The medical authorities are providing free services to the couple to remove the devices and have a second child. Chinese authorities said as many as 18 million women want to have second child and they would be removing the implanted devices in the coming three years.

Chinese population - 1.35 billion

Couples eligible to have second child - 90 million

Couples who want to have second child - 18 million

Women who had their IUDs removed - 3 million

China, which has a population of 1.35 billion, has been relaxing its decades-old family planning policy gradually in recent years, as it faces a declining fertility rate and an ageing population, which has already touched about 220 million and the figure is expected to climb sharply in the coming years, affecting the country's labour market and social structure severely.

The latest amendment to the policy, adopted at the beginning of the year, allows all couples in China to have two children.

The National Health and Family Planning Commission said 90 million couples in China became eligible to have a second child due to the new policy, although half of them are already older than 40, meaning they are less likely to get pregnant.