China college scraps mandatory pregnancy tests

BEIJING (Reuters) - A vocational school in northwest China has scrapped compulsory pregnancy tests for students due to concerns for their privacy, state media reported on Friday.

The college in Urumqi, capital of the far northwestern region of Xinjiang, had defended its policy of testing students as a responsibility to them and their families, but it pulled back following media reports that questioned the rule.

"This rule is intrusive, insensitive and old-fashioned. Why not just make girls captives in their own houses ?" Xinhua quoted a female student as saying.

The agricultural college, where 17 and 18-year-old girls make up about 80 percent of new students, had previously gathered whole classes of girls into the hallway to give urine samples to doctors, media reports said.

Some had borrowed classmates urine to avoid the test.

Headmaster Wang Hongli said the school felt it was incumbent on them to limit the number of unwanted pregnancies and pointed out that none of the parents opposed the policy, but said they decided to scrap it out of consideration to students' privacy.

"We will abandon this policy," Xinhua quoted Wang as saying.

"Public pressure is just too great."

Economic reforms have loosened state control over people's personal lives in China, but birth out of wedlock remains taboo, especially in light of strict family planning policies that limit most couples to one child.