Beijing Court Rules Against Unmarried Woman Seeking To Freeze Her Eggs

A Beijing court ruled against an unmarried woman seeking the right to freeze her eggs. The Chaoyang Intermediate People’s Court in Beijing ruled that the hospital did not violate the woman’s right when they denied her from freezing her eggs.

The woman, Teresa Xu received the court judgement almost three years after she brought the case. In China, unmarried people are not explicitly banned from services such as fertility treatments, and the law states that a “husband and wife” can have up to three children. However, hospitals and institutions implement the regulations by requiring people to show a marriage license. Due to this, unmarried mothers in China have struggled to access public benefits such as maternity leaves or coverage for prenatal exams.

Unmarried Woman Freezing Eggs

In 2018, when Teresa Xu was 30 years old, she went to the public hospital Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital at Capital Medical University. She asked about freezing her eggs and after the initial examination, she was told she could not proceed further. The doctor informed Xu that without a marriage certificate she could not freeze her eggs and urged her to have a child while she was still young.

Xu wanted to preserve her eggs so that she had the option to bear children at a later date. She announced the news on her social media account and said, “I think this lost lawsuit, it’s not an attack on single women’s reproductive rights, maybe it’s a temporary setback”. Xu is planning to appeal the court’s ruling.

According to the judgement, the hospital argued that freezing an egg poses health risks. The hospital also said that delaying the pregnancy would cause problems and bring risks to the mother during pregnancy. The hospital said that a large age gap between the parents and their child could cause “psychological and societal problems”.

The hospital said that their services of freezing eggs were only available for women who were unable to get pregnant and not for healthy patients.

Suggested Reading: Not All Women Who Are Freezing Eggs Might Want To Have Children