On January 1st, 2026, China implemented a 13% VAT (value-added tax) on birth control and other forms of contraception to boost birth rates. China, the world’s second-largest economy, has been experiencing a decline in its birth rate, especially over the last three years. This tax move is intended to help boost ‘fertility-friendly’ measures and “love education.”
Before 2015, China had a one-child policy from 1980 to 2015 that limited most urban households to a single child and assigned birth quotas to women and families, with penalties for having more than the allocated quota. However, in 2021, in an effort to address the aging population, low workforce participation, and the state’s economy, the Chinese government abolished the policy. Still, it did not have the intended effect, as birth rates have continued to decline since then.
Because deaths are more frequent than births in the country, even with increasing the number of children that can be born in a single household from one to three, much of the population considers having children to be more costly. The costs of child care, education, and job uncertainty due to the state of the workforce are all contributing factors.
Although the government has made efforts to encourage the alternative, with annual childcare subsidies, lifting restrictions on marriage, offering extended parental leave, and other cash incentives for potential parents, this has proven difficult. Rapid urbanization has left many families already struggling to find space to live and to afford their current lives, making having children more of a burden than a blessing.
Notably, in 2024, the YuWa Population Research Institute reported that China is one of the most expensive countries to raise a child, primarily due to school fees, the competitive nature of education, and the difficulty of balancing work and parenting, especially for women. The cost of raising a child was 6.3% higher than the country’s GDP per capita, a gap that becomes even more apparent for women who take maternity leave and return to the workforce only to experience a12-17% wage cut.
The report also noted that “some women have to give up having children in exchange for the opportunity to succeed in their careers.” Despite government incentives, the report found that many women see China’s social environment as not conducive with both having children and achieving economic security and career success.
This push for expanding families is in the interest of promoting national economic growth. By imposing a tax on products that were free when the government wanted to curb births, the government is now trying to assert control over the bodies of many Chinese women and make contraceptives less accessible.
China’s decision to tax contraception underscores a troubling pattern: when demographic goals change, women’s bodies become tools of state policy. Instead of addressing the structural barriers that make parenthood unaffordable, housing costs, workplace discrimination, and inadequate childcare, the government has chosen a coercive approach that limits reproductive autonomy. History shows that policies rooted in control, rather than support and choice, are unlikely to reverse declining birth rates.
