Statistics released during Monday's World Contraception Day showed that about 8 million Chinese women undergo abortions annually, and their average age is getting lower, an alarming finding that reflects the need for improved sex education in the country.
Citing studies conducted by a coalition of 10 international NGOs and scientific, medical societies in sexual health since 2009, Cheng Linan, expert with the Birth Control branch of the Chinese Medical Association (CMA), told reporters that 88 percent of Chinese youth polled said they have little knowledge of contraception or feel confused by the question.
Among the 8 million abortions, only 1.9 percent were performed for medical reasons, and the youngest of them was only 13 years old.
The figures are lower than those released by Chinese authorities, as the Ministry of Health put the annual number of women who had abortions at more than 30 million, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
A study this year led by the China Population Communication Center on the sexual health of women in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou showed that among the 1,360 women polled, about 10 percent did not use any contraception methods.
Qi Yirong, the head of a Tianjin-based youth sexual health center, told Xinhua that based on cases seen by the center in the past few years, the number of unplanned pregnancies for girls under 16 has gone up by about 30 percent, and the major reason was their lack of knowledge in this regard.
However, promoting education of contraception has not been easy.
In August, some parents in Beijing voiced their objections against a textbook on sex education that is currently being used for the first time in some schools in the capital.
The book includes illustrations describing sexual intercourse, which caused concern among parents that their children would imitate the acts despite promises from schools to deliver a positive impression.
"Sex education is still a very big problem in China, although in recent years we have seen really good materials for students, but the educators don't appear to be open-minded enough," Mia Lee, a member of the Youth Task Force, an NGO that supports the WCD, told the Global Times.
Similar problems have also emerged in other countries.
According to The New York Times, starting early 2012, middle and high school students in New York City will be required to take sex education classes that include lessons on how to use a condom, which will be the first time in nearly two decades that students will be forced to take the mandatory classes.
However, Peter Sprigg, a senior fellow at the Family Research Council, cautioned that parents would be concerned about the "explicit nature" of the lessons, and Ray Parascando, pastor of Crossroads Church, called the news "disheartening."
"There's nothing wrong with learning about the human body, but when you start going into discourses on sexuality, I worry that we're opening students up to other agendas," Parascando told Fox News.
Lu Jiehua, a professor of sociology at Peking University, said that the relevant authorities need to come up with measures to push forward sex education.
"A shocking fact is that to people who have little knowledge of this, abortion looks like a handy solution, and false promotions from hospitals selling abortion services make the situation even worse," Lu told the Global Times, adding that authorities also need to make people aware of the dangers of abortion.
Lu's remarks were echoed by Cheng, who urged the government to ban advertisements promoting painless abortion. According to Cheng, more than 88 percent of secondary infertility was caused by abortions.
On Saturday, the China Women's Development Foundation, the CMA and the National Research Institute for Family Planning jointly launched a program to strengthen contraception education and services at a clinical level to avoid repeated abortions.
The WCD was launched in 2007 and China joined the campaign in 2009.
Study results released on Monday involved 26 countries and 5,426 young people in Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the US, as well as 600 people from Egypt, Kenya and Uganda.
Over half of the young people surveyed in China, Estonia, Kenya, Korea, Norway and Thailand reported having unprotected sex with a new partner at least once.
About 22 percent of young people across the Asia Pacific, 20 percent across Europe and 14 percent in Latin America said that their school does not provide a comfortable environment for questions on sexuality and intimacy.
Furthermore, respondents tend to avoid asking healthcare professionals about contraception because of embarrassment and many cannot rely on their schools to provide comprehensive sex education.
Huang Shaojie contributed to this story