China Plans to Abandon Birth Limits

China plans to abandon all restrictions on the number of children a family can have, Bloomberg News reports. The government is said to be calling the new policy “independent fertility,” and would allow families to choose how many children they have. Sources told Bloomberg the change could come as soon as the “fourth quarter,” but it may also be pushed to 2019. The country’s one-child policy was introduced in 1979 as a way to ease overpopulation. Many female babies were aborted after the policy went into effect, and it ultimately led to a shortage of workers. The policy was then relaxed to two children in 2016. According to Bloomberg, China’s population now has 30 million more men than women.