Chinese authorities have attributed the country's high abortion rate mainly to poor sex education and inadequate knowledge of contraception.
Newly published research reveals there are 13 million abortions each year compared with 20-million births.
Researchers believe the real figure could be even higher because many abortions are at unregistered clinics.
Other countries have higher rates, including Russia, which in some years has more terminations than births.
The abortion figures were published in the China Daily newspaper, and other Chinese media outlets have published similar figures, although it has not been immediately clear when the research was carried out.
China, the world's most prolific state executioner, may drastically reduce the number of people it executes, and impose more suspended death sentences.
Promise to cut executions
Meanwhile, China, the world's most prolific state executioner, may drastically reduce the number of people it executes.
Supreme People's Court vice-president Zhang Jun says that in future the court will impose more suspended death sentences.
Two years ago, when the court regained from provincial high courts the power of final approval of death penalties, it was also given the power to review death sentences handed down by lower courts. That has already led to fewer executions.
Even so, Amnesty International says China executed 1,718 people in 2008 - 72% of all those formally executed in the world.
The China Daily quotes Mr Zhang as saying the number of executions will be reined in. The punishment should be handed down only to "an extremely small number" of serious offenders, the paper says.
Sixty types of crime carry the death penalty, including many non-violent and economic crimes. There are no plans to abolish capital punishment.
