(Ecns.cn)--In the affiliated hospital of Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Song Helan has just finished surgery on her 19-year-old patient, who underwent her second such induced abortion in the last two months.
"She is not even the youngest on my list," sighed Song, who further explained that many of her patients are mainly those born in the 1990s. According to the statistics made by the hospital, more than 34.5% of their patients in the first half of the year were women under the age of 25.
Young is not the usual profile of a woman having an abortion in China due to cultural restraints, not to mention many of such women are unmarried. But as society changes rapidly, so do the features of abortion. Beginning in larger cities, the trend is now even spreading into small cities and down to some developed counties, according to health experts.
Young women, including teenagers, are now having an increasing number of induced abortions in the country, according to Professor Cheng Linan from the oligogenics branch of Chinese Medical Association (CMA). And in first-tier cities like Shanghai and Guangzhou, more than 40% to 50% of such women, including migrant workers, college students, and urban professionals, are having multiple abortions due to unprotected sex.
"Alarmingly, 51% of young men and women in the country are not familiar with the different contraceptive options available to them," stated the latest World Contraception Day survey released on September 26.
"Many of such young women coming for the abortion are not even aware of their pregnancy until the fourth or fifth months simply because of a lack of basic knowledge about it," said an expert in Nanjing who declined to give her name.
This sheds new light on a shocking phenomenon: many who have abortions, including educated urban professionals and college students, lack even a basic understanding about reproductive health and contraception.
As some of the most common misunderstandings, young couples believe that extracorporeal ejaculation, unprotected sex during a safe period, and instant contraceptives are effective enough for birth control, according to Wu Shangchun, director of the female clinical lab with the State Population and Family Planning Commission.
As a result, they prefer having unprotected sex without condoms. This echoes a recent survey conducted by Anhui Medical University in central China. It revealed that among the 457 polled migrant female workers, 11.2% never use condoms while 32.3% of them use condoms now and then.
Experts blame the blind spot in sex education in the country as one of the deep-rooted reasons for unprotected sexual behavior. One survey has suggested that 75% of young Chinese learn about sex through pornography or porn websites.
