My mom was given a copy of Marie Claire recently, and while flipping through it she was surprised to find an in-depth article about China’s forced abortion policy.
I was pleasantly surprised that this magazine—which features on its homepage a number of things I would be embarrassed to read—covered this horrible topic with such accuracy.
Repercussions for Having a Large Family
According to the article, last spring 600 officials were specifically tasked with kidnapping family members of violators of the One Child Policy in the Puning region of China. Apparently enforcement there “had grown lax” in recent years because of the “breakneck economic development” the region was experiencing.
Concerning this crackdown in southern China, a Chinese economist remarked: “People in the south… feel that laws in the rest of the country don’t apply to them… It seems that many people here believed they could have a large family without serious repercussions.”
Based on the story of Wei Laojin, whose brother-in-law was left to starve in a disgusting, packed jail cell until she underwent immediate sterilization, a “large” family is one which has two children in it.
I am reminded of the Walmart commercial with the mom talking about how she loves Walmart’s low prices because she has such a big family—and the camera pans out to show her three children.
Except when we’re talking about fast food, “large” appears to have gotten smaller all over the world.
China’s Changing Abortion Demographics
I read another article, this one in Sunday’s Chicago Sun-Times, which noted the changing trend in China regarding which women are having abortions. (A longer version of the article is available here.)
Because women in China may not marry before the age of 20, and they may not have a child until they are married, many young, unmarried Chinese women are beginning to have abortions.
Zhang Jie, who was interviewed for the article, admitted to having her second abortion in two years—both times because her birth control failed. In China it’s not just the contraceptive mentality that pushes these women to abort, it’s the law of the land which forbids them from having children out of wedlock.
Clinic Workers Bury Baby Bodies
The saddest part of the article in my mind, was the report that the median of Eternal Peace Road has become the final resting place for “numerous” pre-born babies.
The abortion clinic across the street buries the bodies of the older babies “that have reached three or four months, when they clearly resemble miniature babies.” (The FoxNews article says the smaller babies are simply treated as “medical waste,” just as in America.) The clinic’s anesthesiologist calls these burials “a gesture of respect for lives cut short.”
Further Reading on China’s Forced Abortion Policy
- Steve Mosher of the Population Research Institute is well known for having exposed China’s forced abortion and sterilization to the world. It’s well worth reading.
- World Magazine wrote about “The Thirty Years War” and how the One-Child Policy was supposed to be phased out after 30 years (but has not been) in its June 19, 2010 issue, if you have access to the magazine. They have an online article from 2009 also detailing Mosher’s research and another about China’s forced abortions.
