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Author	Dr Yingxue Yang
Organisation/Institution	Shanghai Jiao Tong University, KoGuan School of Law
Country	CHINA
Panel	Women and Law
Title	Reconstructing Reproductive Rights Regulation in China: Balancing State Population Strategy, Fetal Interests, and Women’s Autonomy
Abstract	In the context of a declining birthrate and an aging population, China’s Regulation of Reproductive Rights faces tension between individual autonomy and state-driven demographic objectives. The current legal structure is shaped by a dual conception of Reproductive Rights: the negative right to avoid coercive reproductive interventions, and the positive right to obtain support and services that enable childbearing. While recent reforms have strengthened the negative dimension, the positive dimension remains fragmented and underdeveloped, particularly in relation to access to reproductive services and the protection of women’s autonomy. This paper argues that the Regulation of Reproductive Rights in China requires reconstruction. The central question is how to balance women’s autonomy, fetal interests, and the state’s population strategy in a way that is coherent in principle and workable in practice. Through a comparative analysis of Germany, the United States, and Taiwan, the paper examines models of abortion regulation, counselling mechanisms, and state obligations in providing reproductive support. These jurisdictions demonstrate varying responses to similar ethical and demographic pressures, including debates over whether positive Reproductive Rights should remain at the level of reflexive interests or evolve into subjective rights enforceable against the state. Building on these comparative insights and China’s policy trajectory, the paper proposes a framework for reconstructing the Regulation of Reproductive Rights. This framework includes: (1) clarifying the constitutional status of reproductive autonomy within the Reproductive Rights structure; (2) developing a differentiated model of abortion regulation that reflects both women’s rights and the protection of fetal life; and (3) strengthening the positive dimension of Reproductive Rights through institutional guarantees, expanded reproductive services and a clearer allocation of state responsibilities. By situating China’s experience within Asian debates on demographic sustainability, justice and governance, the paper offers a balanced approach to Reproductive Rights regulation in the era of low birthrate and aging population.
Biography	Yingxue Yang is a Ph.D. candidate at the KoGuan School of Law, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), specializing in constitutional and administrative law with a focus on Reproductive Rights, population policy, and health governance. She previously earned a Master of Laws from the Institute for Health Law and Policy at East China University of Political Science and Law (ECUPL). She later completed an LL.M. in Administrative and Health Law at Penn State Law in the United States. Yang has served as a research assistant at the China Institute for Rule of Law Strategy, contributing to multiple decision-support memoranda, seven of which were adopted at provincial and ministerial levels. Her work includes policy recommendations on allowing unmarried women to access elective oocyte cryopreservation under specific conditions, which received written comments from both municipal and central authorities. Her academic experience includes participation in a major National Social Science Fund project on the rule-of-law-based governance of national health, as well as a commissioned project by the National Health Commission on the review and codification of health legislation, where she worked on matters related to the Population and Family Planning Law. She has presented on issues relating to Reproductive Rights regulation at the 2023 Annual Conference of the Chinese Society of Health Law, engaging with scholarly debates on demographic governance and public law. Her current doctoral research further develops these lines of inquiry by examining the constitutional foundations, regulatory techniques, and comparative models relevant to the Regulation of Reproductive Rights in China.