<P> The one - child policy has been challenged for violating a human right to determine the size of one's own proper family . According to a 1968 proclamation of the International Conference on Human Rights, "Parents have a basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and the spacing of their children ." </P> <P> According to the UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph, a quota of 20,000 abortions and sterilizations was set for Huaiji County in Guangdong Province in one year due to reported disregard of the one - child policy . According to the article local officials were being pressured into purchasing portable ultrasound devices to identify abortion candidates in remote villages . The article also reported that women as far along as 8.5 months pregnant were forced to abort, usually by an injection of saline solution . A 1993 book by social scientist Steven W. Mosher reported that women in their ninth month of pregnancy, or already in labour, were having their children killed whilst in the birth canal or immediately after birth . </P> <P> According to a 2005 news report by Australian Broadcasting Corporation correspondent John Taylor, China outlawed the use of physical force to make a woman submit to an abortion or sterilization in 2002 but ineffectively enforces the measure . In 2012, Feng Jianmei, a villager from central China's Shaanxi province was forced into an abortion by local officials after her family refused to pay the fine for having a second child . Chinese authorities have since apologized and two officials were fired, while five others were sanctioned . </P> <P> In the past China promoted eugenics as part of its population planning policies, but the government has backed away from such policies, as evidenced by China's ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which compels the nation to significantly reform its genetic testing laws . Recent research has also emphasized the necessity of understanding a myriad of complex social relations that affect the meaning of informed consent in China . Furthermore, in 2003, China revised its marriage registration regulations and couples no longer have to submit to a pre-marital physical or genetic examination before being granted a marriage license . </P>

When did china abandon the one child policy