Private hospital offers 'set menu' for teen abortions
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Xiao Mi (not her real name), a 17-year-old pupil at a vocational high school, waits for an abortion in a Beijing hospital that offers a so-called "set menu" for teenagers seeking abortions.
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Private hospital offers 'set menu' for teen abortions |
She is not the first one in her class to have one.
"Almost every girl in my class has a boyfriend – any girl would be embarrassed if she didn't have a boyfriend," Xiao Mi said.
A survey organized by the Beijing Municipal Women's Federation reveals that 8 percent of Chinese girls between the ages of 13 and 19 have had sex – and 3 percent have already been pregnant.
The first national survey of adolescent reproductive health conducted by the National Working Committee on Children and Women under the State Council, the United Nations Population Fund and Peking University showed that 22.4 percent of all unmarried teenagers – both male and female – have already had sex, and 51.2 percent did not use any contraception the first time.
Meng Fan, a physician at the Birth Control Department of Beijing Maternity Hospital, said that in recent years, a growing number of teenagers have come to the hospital for an abortion, with the youngest only 13 years old.
One expert on birth control, Nan Xiupai, said that most of China's unplanned pregnancies usually involve women aged between 19 and 22.
When she discovered she was pregnant, Xiao Mi didn't turn to her parents for help – and instead logged onto her own computer and started gathering information on the internet.
She saw a post published on a site called Textbook by a web user named Xiao You, giving tips on how to get an abortion, based on her own experience. Many other girls gave their own suggestions on matters such as how to avoid attracting any of their teachers' curiosity. Xiao You became known as "Sister Experience."
Xiao Mi took note of these comments, and also followed her best friend's advice, choosing a private hospital for her procedure, as her friend did six months earlier.
"The "set menu" for students is 880 yuan ($132.52) and I have taken the sum from my Chinese New Year gift money," she said.
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