China allows couples to have two children

China’s ruling Communist Party has decided to allow all couples to have two children, abolishing a policy that limited many urban couples to only one child for more than three decades.

The decision is the most significant easing of family planning policies that were long considered some of the party’s most onerous intrusions into family life.

The restrictions led to an imbalanced sex ratio because of a traditional preference for boys, and a strict enforcement that sometimes included forced abortions.