Beijing (AsiaNews) - A Chinese woman in Shanxi was forced to abort the child she was carrying in the seventh month of pregnancy. Adding to the horror of violence, the authorities placed the body of the dying infant boy on the bed next to the woman.
The incident occurred on June 3 and is reported by the website Tianwang. The woman, Feng Jianmei was beaten and dragged into a vehicle by a group of Family Planning employees, while her husband Deng Jiyuan was at work. Population control employees had demanded 40 thousand yuan (about 4 000 Euro, over 3 years of wages) from the family, who had broken the one-child law. Not having received the money, they forced Jianmei to have an abortion in the seventh month. The small body was placed beside his mother on the bed (WARNING: THESE IMAGES ARE UPSETTING). The woman is now in hospital in the city of Ankang.
Attorney U.S. Reggie Littlejohn, who campaigns for the defense of women in China (Women's Rights Without Frontiers) and who spread the news in the West, says: "This is an outrage. No legitimate government should commit or tolerate such an act. Those responsible should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity ". Forced abortion is still a very common practice in China, due to the strict observance of the one-child policy.
Also today Littlejohn released the news that a woman of Changsha (Hunan) will be forced to have an abortion if she does not pay 25 thousand U.S. dollars.
In recent days, a dozen members of Family Planning China raided the home of Ruyi Cao, who is in the fifth month of pregnancy of her second son and dragged her to the hospital to force an abortion. Her husband, Li Fu, was beaten and warned that either he give permission for a "voluntary abortion" or his wife will be subjected to a forced abortion. Last weekend, the hospital released Cao Ruyi upon payment of a 1500 US dollar "fine for social compensation". But members of the Family planning still demand 25 thousand dollars to give her permission to continue the pregnancy.
According to official statistics 13million abortions are carried out in China every year. Of these many are forced.
The dissident Chai Ling, one of the leaders of the Tiananmen movement, exiled in the United States and converted to Christianity, is engaged in the fight against forced abortions caused by the one-child law. Over a year ago, during a meeting of dissidents in front of the White House, Chai Ling said: "The application of the violent and brutal one-child policy is the greatest crimes against humanity currently taking place; it is the secret and inhumane gutting of mothers and children; it is the Tiananmen massacre repeated every hour in an infinite holocaust that has been going on 30 years "(see: 19/01/2011 Obama and Hu Jintao urged to stop forced abortions in China, a daily Tiananmen massacre).