Plans to fine women who have children out of wedlock have caused outrage in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
Under draft legislation being considered by the city's government, unmarried mothers and women who have children with men who are already married would face "social compensation fees". The proposal, drawn up by family planning officials in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, is designed to target women who "knowingly have children out of wedlock", according to a report in the Global Times newspaper.
State media said the aim of the legislation was to "intensify family planning management and keep the birthrate at a low level".
The unveiling of the draft legislation came days after the case of Baby 59, a newborn boy who was rescued from a sewage pipe in Zhejiang province. Reports suggested that the baby's mother had been forced into secretly delivering the baby in a communal toilet as a result of the social stigma attached to being a single mother. The mother told police she had been rejected by the child's biological father, leading her to attempt to hide her pregnancy.
One Chinese demographersaid the policy would almost certainly lead to a rise in the number of abandoned babies and abortions.
