Leaving behind a wake of forced sterilizations, abortions and the claim that it prevented 400 million from being born, the Communist Party in China declared Thursday that it will end its 36-year-old one-child policy and allow its citizens to raise two. Yet as The Economist notes, “The party still insists, unlike the government of any other nation, that it has the right to control people’s fertility.” The change comes as China’s population grows older and its economy must somehow figure out how it will care for them. And the gender imbalance, caused by couples favoring male babies, could have political and social consequences, The Wall Street Journal notes. In other words, while China seems to have introduced a level of pro-life values into its government, it is actually unchanged. Mao and his communist leadership pressured his subjects to procreate. A few decades later, and the Chinese government declared an emergency and instituted the one-child policy in 1979. “The one-child policy has reduced China’s standard of living and will continue to do so for decades to come,” the WSJ editorial board wrote. “It’s a powerful reminder that national welfare can’t be separated from personal freedom.”