Woman wants to ‘freeze eggs’ but court rules against her; Read on

A rare legal challenge brought by an unmarried Beijing woman seeking the right to freeze her eggs was dismissed by a Chinese court. In a decision issued in Beijing, the Chaoyang Intermediate People’s Court stated that the hospital did not violate the woman’s rights by denying her access to freeze her eggs. Teresa Xu received the court decision on Friday, nearly three years after filing the case.

National law in China does not explicitly prohibit unmarried people from receiving services such as fertility treatments, instead stating that a ‘husband and wife’ can have up to three children. In practise, however, hospitals and other institutions enforce the regulations by requiring people to show their marriage licence. Unmarried women who want to have children have had difficulty obtaining public benefits such as maternity leave or coverage for prenatal exams.

In 2018, Xu, then 30, went to Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital at Capital Medical University, a public hospital, to inquire about egg freezing. She was told she couldn’t go any further after an initial examination because she couldn’t show a marriage certificate. She also claimed that the doctor advised her to have a child while she was still young. Xu, who is unmarried, wanted to preserve her eggs so she could have the option of having children later in life.

‘I don’t think this lost lawsuit is an attack on single women’s reproductive rights; maybe it’s just a temporary setback,’ she said in a short video statement posted to her WeChat account announcing the news. When Xu first appeared in court in 2019, her case received widespread coverage in China’s domestic media, including some state-run outlets. According to local media, her case against the hospital was the first in the country.

According to the decision, the hospital argued that egg freezing poses certain health risks. However, it also stated that delaying pregnancy would result in ‘problems’ such as risks to the mother during pregnancy and ‘psychological and societal problems’ if there is a large age gap between parents and their child. The hospital also stated that egg-freezing services were only available to women who were unable to become pregnant naturally, and not to healthy patients. Xu has stated that she intends to appeal the decision.