1922年6月，上海《婦女雜誌》出版了「產兒制限專號」，這是該誌為了配合當年4月，美國著名的節育（birth control）運動者刪格爾 夫人（Mrs. Margaret H. Sanger）訪華後，掀起的婦女解放熱潮而出版的。這個專號象徵的是1922年「科學的節育運動」已在中國展開。 「母性自決」是五四時期婦女解放的主題之一，其內容是產兒限制，亦即「生育自主」。這個觀念源自刪格爾夫人所大力推動的「 科學避孕法」，其初衷是獲取母性的自由，實即女性的生育自主權。不過，1920年代以後的中國及1950年代後臺灣的節育運動經驗顯示：節育 如和經濟發展、人口問題相牽連，則女性生養子女便不再是「個人私事」，而是「國家公事」；在國家決定人口政策、決定生育政策下，女性終不免「生」不由己。早期，節育（墮胎）對婦女而言，本屬「犯罪」的行為，其後作為一種合法權利向社會提出的，但推展的結果，權利卻又變成義務。作為人權的生育權，究竟誰屬？深值推敲。

　　　　　The Shanghai Ladies' Journal (Funu zazhi) published a “Special Issue on Limiting Births” in June 1922. This issue was published in reaction to the enthusiasm for women's liberation roused by the April visit to China of Margaret Sanger, the famous American birth control activist. The special issue symbolized the success that the “scientific birth control movement” had achieved in China by 1922. “Maternal choice” was a topic in May Fourth women's liberation discourse that focused on limiting births, that is, “birth autonomy.” This notion, which originated in the “scientific contraception” vigorously promoted by Sanger, was initially designed to achieve “maternal liberation”--or in other words, a woman's right to make her own decisions about giving birth. However, the experience of the birth control movement in China since the 1920s and in Taiwan since the 1950s demonstrates that if birth control is linked to economic development and the population problem, then giving birth and raising children is no longer considered a “ personal issue” but a “national concern.” Government population and birth policies meant that woman could never decide about giving birth only with reference to themselves. Initially, women called for the right to birth control (abortion), which was at the time considered “criminal behavior,” but in the end, a right became a duty. In the final analysis, we need to ask, to whom does the human right to give birth belong?