In a move that has sparked widespread outrage and privacy concerns, health authorities in parts of China are now reportedly asking women of childbearing age to disclose the date of their last menstrual period. From rural villages to urban universities, women, including unmarried college students, are being contacted and pressed for this deeply personal information.
Officials claim this data is for “pregnancy screening” to provide basic public health services. However, citizens and rights advocates see it as a significant overreach and a desperate measure to combat China’s plummeting birth rates. The country has seen birth numbers fall for three consecutive years, with many kindergartens even closing their doors.
Online, the reaction has been swift and furious. Screenshots of these requests, often circulated in local chat groups, show demands for names, period dates, and phone numbers. Commenters have sarcastically dubbed it the arrival of the “menstrual police,” questioning why authorities are so keen on collecting such intimate data while other social problems go unaddressed.
This isn’t just an isolated incident. Reports from Yunnan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Henan provinces indicate a growing trend. One unmarried woman in Yunnan recounted being called by the village women’s federation, asking about her period dates and pregnancy plans. Students in Jiangsu and Zhejiang also reported similar calls or school requirements, bravely refusing to share what they rightly consider private.
The alarm among the public is heightened by China’s history of brutal family planning policies, including forced abortions and sterilizations under the one-child policy. While formal birth limits have been eased, critics fear this new data collection hints at a different kind of coercion. The question remains: In a bid to boost births, how far will the state go, and what price will individual privacy pay?
