In 1979 China introduced its one-child policy which set up penalties for families that chose to have more than one child. Women were compelled to undergo a surgical implantation of an IUD following the birth of their first child and tubal ligation if they were to have another child. Families that disobeyed the law were levied a fine and lost their right to many government services, including access to health and educational services. Nevertheless, transgressions of the law most certainly occurred. Consequently, over the course of over three decades, hundreds of thousands of children, the majority of which were girls, were abandoned and required caretaking. Non-governmental organizations stepped in to assist with the re-housing of these girls, leading to the international adoption of over 120,000 Chinese children. Today, China's fertility rate has not quite returned to the rate of replacement (the birth rate that will maintain population size under conditions of zero net immigration/emigration). In fact, in the years since the relinquishing of the policy, China's fertility rate has only risen .04 per family.