China Is About to Tax Condoms to Try to Force a Baby Boom
“Can’t Afford a Kid? Well Too Bad.”
In case you missed it, China has decided to raise the cost of condoms and other contraceptives by imposing a 13% value-added tax (VAT) to combat declining birth rates. You read that right: instead of making parenthood more affordable, they’re making it more expensive to avoid getting pregnant. It’s a policy that reads like satire, except it’s real — and it’s a clear reminder that when governments panic about birth rates, the first thing they target is reproductive autonomy.
And let’s not forget: this is the same nation that once enforced a one-child policy because its population was growing “too fast.” The same government that punished people for having too many children is now pressuring them for not having enough. It’s a perfect example of how reproductive policies are never truly about families — they’re about control.
And let’s be honest about who gets hit hardest by a move like this. The people most likely to forgo buying condoms are the same people who are already the least economically secure. So why, exactly, would China want its lower-income population to have more babies? Wouldn’t it make more sense — ethically, economically, humanely — to encourage financially stable families to bring new life into the world? Of course it would. But like I’ve been telling you all along: these policies aren’t about the well-being of children or families. They’re about producing more workers, more consumers, more bodies to feed the machine of capitalism. Babies aren’t being treated as human lives. No, they’re being treated as economic inputs to keep the wealthy insulated and the labor force plentiful.
Instead of addressing the real reasons people aren’t having children — unaffordable living costs, crushing work expectations, unstable jobs, impossible childcare expenses — the government has decided to make not having children more expensive. It’s punishment disguised as policy, and coercion wrapped in concern. And if anything, it proves the point: when society won’t support parents, it starts cornering them instead.
A Policy Built on Backward Logic
Across the world, declining birth rates tend to trigger the same tired political reflex: blame individuals, blame women, blame feminism, blame “Western values,” blame culture, blame liberalism, blame—somehow—Obama, yes still, apparently. Let’s blame literally anything and anyone except the obvious structural failures making parenthood unsustainable. It’s easier to point fingers at women’s autonomy than to confront the economies, policies, and social expectations that have made having a child feel downright impossible for millions.
And as we see here, China is no exception. Instead of lowering the cost of housing, expanding parental leave, or investing in childcare infrastructure, policymakers have decided the real issue is that condoms are just too affordable. As if raising the price of contraception will magically erase economic anxiety, burnout, gender inequality, and the evolving personal values of an entire generation. A few extra yuan at the convenience store won’t inspire a baby boom — but it will reveal exactly where the government thinks the problem lies: with you, not the system.
The condom tax hike also comes at a time when HIV rates in China are rising while its been decreasing worldwide. Stigma, lack of comprehensive sex education, and widespread misinformation about HIV transmission have all contributed to this resurgence. Many cases are connected to people having unprotected sex. So now, in a moment when safer sex is more important than ever, the government is choosing to make condoms harder to afford and access. This is extremely dangerous and the recipe for another public health crisis.
This is what demographic desperation looks like. China is tightening access to birth control, hoping it will tighten birth rates right along with it. It’s punishing the people who are already struggling the most, targeting those who can least afford another mouth to feed, and treating reproduction like a civic obligation rather than a personal choice. And let’s call it what it is: coercive, regressive, and frankly disgusting.
And what incentives is China offering alongside this condom tax? A few tax exemptions for childcare services, elder-care institutions, disability providers, and even marriage services — tiny band-aids on a massive structural problem. At the same time, they’re moving to restrict abortion access for any procedure not considered “medically necessary.”
Yes, the same country that once enforced a one-child policy is now making it harder not to carry a pregnancy.
Almost like it was never really about “life” at all, right?
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Reproductive Coercion Disguised as Strategy
Let’s be honest: raising the cost of contraception is not a “pro-family” policy. It is a coercive policy — one that hits low-income people hardest and restricts access to sexual autonomy under the glossy banner of “national recovery.” When governments make birth control harder to obtain, what they’re really doing is shifting the burden of demographic decline onto the bodies of the people least equipped to carry it.
And if you’re in the United States with me, this is not something we get to ignore. We have already watched reproductive rights rolled back in real time — Roe v. Wade overturned, contraception access debated, anti-choice legislation spreading state by state, and influential political groups openly pushing agendas that would further restrict bodily autonomy. You don’t have to name names to recognize the pattern: once reproductive freedom starts eroding, it rarely stops on its own.
That’s why we need to pay attention to what’s happening in other countries. Not because China’s policy will automatically become ours, but because these global trends show how quickly governments fall back on coercion when they want more babies but don’t want to support actual families.
We cannot afford to be complacent.
We cannot assume “it won’t happen here.” If anything, this moment is a reminder to stay vigilant, stay vocal, and keep advocating for reproductive freedom — before we wake up and realize someone else has started writing the rules for our bodies.
Some Real Reasons That People Aren’t Having Kids
If governments truly wanted higher birth rates, they would address the actual barriers, such as:
Childcare that costs more than rent
Housing markets designed for investors, not families
Work cultures that burn people out before age 30
Gender inequality in household labor
Healthcare and eldercare costs
Inconsistent parental leave
Economic instability and stagnating wages
These are not issues solved by taxing condoms!
These are issues solved by investing in people!
Why This Conversation Matters for the Childfree
Even if you’re proudly childfree, policies like this matter because they reveal how quickly reproductive freedom can erode under demographic panic. When states view women’s wombs as national resources, the slope toward coercion becomes dangerously slippery.
Autonomy is not something we can assume will be respected. This is something we defend by naming these policies for what they are: Restriction, not “encouragement.” Manipulation, not “motivation.”
And the biggest question remains:
If parenthood is so natural, so beautiful, so fulfilling… why do they have to force people into it?
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