More than 2,000 babies have been born in China to women who lost their children in a 2008 earthquake thanks to a government programme that includes artificial insemination, state media said Wednesday.
A total of 3,140 women had become pregnant under the programme, which also provided free medical treatment, with 2,106 giving birth so far, the Global Times said, quoting government figures.
The 8.0-magnitude earthquake on May 12, 2008 in southwestern China's Sichuan province was the nation's deadliest in a generation, leaving nearly 87,000 dead or missing and about 18,000 families childless.
The report gave no further details on the programme, but said similar projects had been launched in Qinghai province, where a 6.9-magnitude quake struck on April 14, killing more than 2,000 people in an ethnic Tibetan region.
China has strict population control laws limiting many families to one child, but it loosened those regulations for victims of the Sichuan quake.
The government announced following the 2008 quake that parents who lost their children in the disaster could have another baby, as could families whose children were left disabled.
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