China is among those governments that have banned single women from freezing their eggs for future use. This ban has led to a public debate in China. Those objecting the loudest are women who want reproductive rights. They want the right to decide on their own methods of family planning.

This debate heated up when a Chinese actress, Xu Jinglei, reported that she had gone to the United States two years ago to have nine of her eggs frozen.

Xu Jinglei is 41 years old. She said her eggs were frozen so that she could possibly have her own children in the future in her words, to save herself “an option.”

After news of her U.S. visit spread, China’s state media reported comments of Chinese health and family planning officials. They said that freezing ones eggs is considered an assisted reproductive treatment. They noted that it and other reproductive treatments are illegal for single women in China.

The health commission's rule took effect in 2003. It denies this treatment to single women and couples and who are not in line with the nation's population and family planning regulation.