I visited China in 1983 just as they were implementing the 1 child policy.
The Chinese were most eager to talk to American tourists. One of them asked me about the one child policy (in a whisper). I pulled a picture of my 4 kids out of my pocket and he admired it. I told him that I was an only child and really regretted not having brothers, or sisters, but it was a result of the privations of the depression. However, after WWII the US birth rate really soared. I assured him it would probably change down the road.
Even in 1983, there were exceptions to the one child policy for farmers — just as farmers could have an extra business on the side. At that time, the farmers were rich, while the educated classes (accountants, teachers, etc.) were poor and locked into low salaried positions and lived in crowded apartment blocks in the city.
In 2015 in Wisconsin we are quite well acquainted with a Chinese couple who work at a Chinese restaurant here in town. She just gave birth to her 3rd child — a boy. She already has 2 girls, about 8 years apart. One born in China and one born here. Even though she goes back to Shanghai every couple of years to visit her family, I wonder if she realizes that she would never have been allowed to keep #3 in China?
China has changed, quite drastically. Materialism rules. Abortion will still be the norm, regardless of families allowed to have two, because now people feel they can’t afford a second child, a second child will ruin a woman’s figure, ] if they foetus isn’t perfect in every way, its not ‘worth it’ - or any number of such excuses I have heard.