Many hospitals in China are turning away men seeking vasectomies as the government tries to reverse a falling birthrate, The Washington Post is reporting.
"It’s a rather simple surgery in theory, but public hospitals will almost always turn patients away because we are aware of the risks involved in doing something that’s not explicitly OK'd by the government," said a man who went by Yang, a director of a hospital in Jingzhou city, Hubei province.
The Post said he would only reveal part of his name out of fear of being punished by the government for speaking to foreign media.
He added: "The fundamental policy is that China needs more childbirths."
Demographers believe the population in China could begin to slip within a few years. According to official data, China recorded 8.5 births per 1,000 people last year. It is the lowest rate in more than 70 years, according to the Post.
Single men, along with couples, who inquired about a vasectomy said doctors and hospital staff refused to perform the procedure, saying they would regret the decision later. Some of the medical professionals asked for proof of marriage and evidence that couples had already had children before going ahead with the surgery.
Zhou Muyun, a 23-year-old copywriter in Guangzhou, was unsuccessful in his efforts to get a vasectomy this year.
"The more I learn about vasectomies, the surer I feel about my decision," he said. "We want to have sex, not children," Zhou said.
Two hospitals turned down Zhou with doctors telling him that he was too young.
In May, The Associated Press reported that Xinjiang in far western China recorded the sharpest known decline in birthrates between 2017 and 2019 of any territory in recent history.
A report from the Australian Strategy Policy Institute revealed the 48.74% decline was concentrated in areas with many Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other largely Muslim ethnic minorities, based on Chinese government statistics over nearly a decade, the AP said.
The birthrates in largely minority counties fell 43.7% between 2017 and 2018 alone, with over 160,000 fewer babies born, the report said. However, that compares to a slight increase in births in counties populated mostly by China's Han majority.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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