Brutkey

Charlie Stross
@cstross@wandering.shop

China to hike tax on condoms in attempt to boost falling birth rate

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/18/china-to-raise-tax-condoms-boost-birth-rate

That's not going to work. Instead, it'll boost the abortion rate and cause a spike in the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases.

(Attempts to force women into pregnancy by withholding contraception tend to fail horrificallyβ€”see also Romania in the 1970s and 1980s following Decree 770.)