By Gao Zitan and Stephen Jones
Epoch Times Staff
Epoch Times Staff
A screenshot taken of the number of posts on the Sina Weibo microblogging site regarding the forced abortion of a 7-month pregnant woman in Shaanxi Province. The small photo in the screenshot depicts the woman, Feng Jianmei, sitting next to her apparently dead fetus. (Weibo.com)
The case of a woman, seven months pregnant, who was forced to abort her unborn daughter has stirred debate in China over the country’s one-child policy.
Feng Jiamei, from Zhenping County in Shaanxi Province, was forced to undergo the late-term procedure because her family couldn’t afford the 40,000 yuan (US$6,270) fine for a second child. Feng’s husband posted shockingly graphic pictures of the aborted baby online, prompting outrage from both China and the international community.
The outrage has prompted Chinese authorities to launch an investigation into the case, describing it as “a serious violation of national and provincial policies and regulations on population and family planning.”
However, Feng’s case is not the only one of its kind. According to statistics published by China’s Ministry of Health, the family planning policy was responsible for over 300 million cases of artificially induced abortions over the past 30 years (from 1971 to 2009), since it was implemented in China.
“It is foolish for the Chinese government to believe that this is nearly sufficient enough to make up for the 35,000 forced and coerced abortions every day under the brutal one-child policy,” said Chai Ling, the founder of the U.S.-based NGO All Girls Allowed.
The campaigner has alleged that Feng’s case is part of a wider trend within the province. “We learned that family planning officials in Jianmei’s region are launching a campaign of forced abortions this month,” she said. “They received a lower grade from the government because of ‘over-quota’ births, and Jianmei’s story shows us how they plan to respond.”
As recently as January 2011, Chinese leader Hu Jintao claimed that forced abortions weren’t carried out in China, despite the ministry’s own statistics. The assertion was said to have left U.S. lawmakers “astonished.”
However, in recent months, evidence has been mounting. In September of last year, Mei Shunping gave harrowing testimony at a U.S. congressional hearing about how she had allegedly been forced to have five abortions between 1983 and 1990.
“When discovered, pregnant women would be dragged to undergo forced abortions—there simply was no other choice,” she was quoted as having said. “We had no dignity as potential child-bearers.
“By order of the factory’s Family Planning Commission, every month during their menstrual period, women had to undress in front of the birth planning doctor for examination.
“If anyone skipped the examination, she would be forced to take a pregnancy test at the hospital. We were allowed to collect a salary only after it was confirmed that we were not pregnant.”
According to Chinese human rights lawyer Teng Biao, the reason that the family planning policy can murder countless unborn infants is because politics and government officials’ performance take precedence over the law.
In a blog, Teng commented that the family planning policy is an important parameter in all aspects of performance assessment related to government employees’ job applications, job transfers, job promotions, or admission to the Party. If an employee violates the one-child policy, not only will he fail a performance review/assessment, his work unit will also be implicated and fail the overall performance assessment.
Feng’s case first drew international attention when it was picked by the website Chinese Skynet Center for Human Rights. It was then translated and publicized by the U.S.-based group Women’s Rights Without Frontiers.
Reggie Littlejohn, president of the NGO, called for western governments to condemn the practice of forced abortion.
“This is an outrage. No legitimate government would commit or tolerate such an act. Those who are responsible should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity,” she said.
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