BEIJING: Teresa Xu, an unmarried 35-year old Chinese woman, began her final appeal in a Beijing court on Tuesday (May 9), where she is suing a public hospital in the Chinese capital for violating her rights by refusing to freeze her eggs because she is unmarried.
Xu, a freelance writer, first lodged the claim against the Beijing Obstetrics and Gynaecology Hospital in November 2019 in a landmark case of a Chinese woman fighting for her reproductive rights.
Guangzhou-based Xu’s appeal comes as authorities’ attitudes to opening up reproductive technologies for unmarried women have begun to shift as they grapple to stem a decline in births after China posted its first population drop in six decades.
“I have more hope and confidence this time around compared to the first instance trial,” Xu told a gaggle of reporters waiting outside the court before the trial started.
“If I get the verdict I’ve been hoping for, I will act at once,” Xu said, explaining that she would freeze her eggs at a Chinese public hospital as soon as possible.