Washington (AsiaNews) - In a few hours, about half a million people are
expected in the US capital for the annual March for life against abortion. It is
the 40th anniversary of the first rally by the pro-life movement. Today's
event includes prayers and in-depth discussions about life and what threatens
it in the world.
This year, the Pro-Life Recognition Award goes to Reggie Littlejohn whose
organisation, Women's Rights Without Frontiers, has opposed forced abortions
and sterilization in China.
What follows is the speech she will deliver tonight.
It is truly humbling to receive this award, which I accept on behalf of
the women and children of China, who suffer unspeakably under China's brutal
One Child Policy. The fact that you have
chosen to recognize my work to end forced abortion and gendercide in China
indicates that the focus of the U.S. pro-life movement extends beyond the
shores of this land to human rights atrocities occurring on the other side of
the earth -- at the hands of a brutal totalitarian regime, the Chinese
Communist Party.
You may have heard reports that
China is ending its One-Child Policy.
This is untrue. As recently as
January 14, 2013, Wang Xia, Chairman of the National Population and Family
planning Commission, stated, "We must unwaveringly adhere to the One Child
Policy as a national policy to stabilize the low birth rate as the primary
task." China's One Child Policy is
here to stay.
The magnitude of suffering is almost unimaginable. Since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, the
U.S. has had about 55 million abortions.
Since the One-Child Policy was instituted in 1980, the Chinese Communist
Party boasts that it has "prevented" 400 million births. That's more than the entire population of the
United States.
Many of these births are "prevented" through forced abortion. Family
Planning Police drag women out of their homes and force them to abort their
babies, up to the ninth month of pregnancy. Family Planning Officials also order
involuntary sterilizations, and even infanticide, the killing of infants.
Because of the preference for boys, girls are targeted for abortion,
just because they are girls. According
to one UN estimate, up to 200 million women are missing in the world today
because of sex-selective abortion.
China's One Child Policy causes more violence against women and girls
than any other official policy on earth, and any other official policy in the
history of the world, because of the sheer numbers involved. One woman out of every five on earth is
Chinese. This is the real "war against
women."
Thank you for caring about the women and babies of China. You are to be commended for taking on one of
the toughest international issues of our age:
the coercive enforcement of China's One Child Policy.
My question is: where is the pro-choice movement on this? Whether you are pro-life or pro-choice, no
one supports forced abortion because it is not a choice. Why isn't the pro-choice movement condemning
forced abortion in China? Why aren't they standing against forced sterilization?
Why aren't they crying out against the selective abortion of baby girls? Right
now, as I am speaking to you, women are being dragged out of their homes,
strapped down to tables, and forcibly aborted and sterilized. I challenge these
organizations to take a stand.
And yet there is hope. Women's
Rights Without Frontiers recently launched a "Save a Girl" campaign that is
saving the lives of baby girls in China.
We have field workers who identify women who have had an ultrasound,
discovered that they are carrying girls, and plan to abort or abandon
them. We reach out to these mothers,
persuade them to keep their daughters, and give them a monthly stipend for a
year to help them support their baby girls.
This campaign is saving lives in China.
You can find it on the Women's Rights Without Frontiers website.
I am truly thankful for this
award, but more than that, for every committed life in this room. May the power of every ignited heart combine
to burst into a flame that will set the world on fire.
