On Friday, the government of Wuhan city in central Hubei published online a draft updated family planning policy which it says is aimed at keeping the city's birth rate at a low level.
The policy says that "the parties" should pay the fee in cases of births that are out of wedlock or when one side knowingly has a child with someone who has a spouse. It has been interpreted in state media as mainly targeting unmarried mothers and women who have affairs with married men. The public has a week to comment on it.
"It looks like the policy is targeted just at women from my understanding," Chen said.
She said unmarried mothers already faced discrimination, including being barred from receiving maternity benefits from the government.
Unmarried mothers also face stigma because premarital sex traditionally has been frowned upon. In the case of the baby found in the sewer in Zhejiang province on May 25, his mother told police she got pregnant after a brief affair, couldn't afford an abortion, hid her pregnancy from family and neighbors and had concerns about whether she would be able to raise the child. Police also said she told them the baby slipped into the sewer accidentally shortly after its birth an account they later said they accepted.
