Vietnam has the highest abortion rate in the world, and its high rate of gender-specific abortions has been attributed to its two-child policy.
(LifeSiteNews) — As its birth rate continues to decline, Vietnam passed an amendment earlier this month to abolish its decades-long policy limiting the number of children couples can have to just two.
The country's National Assembly voted on June 4 to adopt amendments that reverse the two-child limit in effect since 1988, allowing parents to choose the number of children they have, according to the Associated Press (AP). Vietnam has the highest abortion rate in the world, and its high rate of gender-specific abortions has been attributed to the policy.
"After more than 30 years of a forced two-child limit, hopes that ending this policy will increase the birth rate to balance out the aging population," Live Action News wrote in an X post.
The "two-child" limit had been introduced purportedly to preserve Vietnam from overpopulation after the war. The ancient myth of "overpopulation" has long been used to justify the murder of unborn children by abortion, the use of birth control, and eugenics.
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The policy led to a dramatic decrease in the country's birth rate. Just last year, in 2024, Vietnam recorded a historic low birthrate with the average woman having just 1.9 children, per Vietnam state media. The country's population aged under 15 has also dropped to just 23%, according to the United Nations' (UN) chief population control organization, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
READ: Trump admin pulls $300 million in funding for UN's population control program
As mentioned above, Vietnam currently holds the world's highest abortion rate, with 64 babies being aborted per 1,000 women, per World Population Review. This high abortion rate has caused a significant gender imbalance, with 111 boys born for every 100 girls in 2024.
Other communist countries have implemented similar laws that limit the number of children a family can legally have. China notoriously began its "one-child policy" in 1980, which barred women from giving birth to more than one child, going so far as to label a second child "illegal."
Facing similar declining birth rates as Vietnam, the Chinese government revised the policy to allow women to have up to two children. The birth restrictions were further eased in 2021 by allowing couples to have up to three children.
