HONG KONG, April 25 (UPI) -- Hong Kong private hospitals will limit birth services to mainland-China women seeking to obtain residency rights for their children, a city official said.
York Chow, Hong Kong's health secretary, said Wednesday the four private hospitals would still offer obstetric services to mainland Chinese women married to Hong Kong men, the Financial Times reported.
But the hospitals next year will stop accepting mainland mothers about to give birth but who aren't married to Hong Kong men.
Some Hong Kong locals want to reduce the number of mainland mothers who cross the border to give birth and, in turn, obtain education and residency rights for their children.
Agencies have brought Chinese women across the border to give birth, and Hong Kong advertising campaigns have criticized the mothers as "locusts" because they take advantage of Hong Kong's resources.
In 2010, the Times said, more than a third of nearly 90,000 babies born in Hong Kong were born to mainland Chinese mothers -- up from just 620 in 2001.
