**Acknowledgements**

*Induced Abortion and Spontaneous Early Pregnancy Loss - Focus on Management*

further reduced the rate of induced abortion.

The informed choice promoted in the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994 had provided good external environment for the transformation of China's contraceptive work, in particular, to reduce the induced abortion level [33]. Since March 1995, China began to implement the policy of informed choice and cancel part of related assessment indicators such as sterilization rate, induced abortion rate, etc. Through implementing the combined way, guided by the professional technical person and self-selection of contraceptive measures by the residents, it popularized the high-quality services of family planning and reduced the induced abortion rate [34]. The importance of the informed choice right was confirmed legally by the *Population and Family Planning Law of the People's Republic of China* promulgated in December 2001. Meanwhile, the legality of social upbringing fee or compensation fee was clarified for the first time, which made those women of unintended pregnancy have the possibility of unplanned fertility and

As one of the important assisted birth control methods in the implementation process of family planning policy in China, the level of induced abortion is significantly affected by the development trend of the family planning policy [7]. The rate of induced abortion when the one-child policy is implemented strictly to control the fertility rate is significantly higher than when the family planning policy is implemented moderately. A previous study showed that the induced abortion risk of married women of reproductive age was reduced by about 24% [32]. Under the background of moderate family planning policy, on the one hand, the establishment of social upbringing fee or compensation fee system makes it possible for women of reproductive age with unintended pregnancies to have the unplanned fertility choice; on the other hand, the implementation of informed choice policy gives women a certain amount of informed choice right in which they can choose the appropriate contraceptive measures by themselves, which can improve the contraception effect and avoid the unintended pregnancy to a certain extent, thus to reduce the risk of induced abortion relatively in China [35–39]. Using *China Population and Reproductive Health Survey Data* in 1997, Chen Wei analyzed the influencing factors of induced abortion of Chinese women, and the results showed that the family planning policy did not have significant impact on induced abortion of the women pregnant for the first time, but the effect would be increased significantly with the increase of pregnancy time [27, 40]. Other related studies found that unwanted pregnancy caused by contraceptive failure was the primary reason of induced abortion in China [26, 41]; however, non-compliance with the regulations of family planning policy was the main reason of induced abortion in rural areas in China [29]. In addition, although there is no clear regulation in the latest *Population and Family Planning Law of the People's Republic of China*, many local governments, family planning service institutions, and other related organizations have implemented the post-abortion family planning service (PAFPS) to reduce the risk of repeat abortion. Meanwhile, the *Family Planning Branch of Chinese Medical Association* has

developed the guide of post-abortion family planning service [42].

In general, although induced abortion is never being regulated or clarified specifically in any related authoritative family planning policies or family planning laws actually in which it always emphasizes the importance of contraception, as the primary remedial measure of contraceptive failure, induced abortion has played a non-negligible and important role in controlling the fertility rate. Meanwhile, the induced abortion level in China is constantly changing with the development of

**20**

**5. Conclusions**

We appreciate the funding provided by the European Commission (EC)'s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), grant number 282490.
