Abortion | CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon

13/07/2012

* Chinese couple paid for forced abortion

UPI: “A Chinese couple forced to abort their child at seven months in early June was paid an $11,200 settlement by the local government Wednesday.

Deng Jiyuan said the government agreed to pay $11,200 after already firing two officials, sanctioning five officials and issuing a former apology for forcing Deng’s wife, Feng Jianmei, to have an abortion when she was seven months pregnant, The New York Times reported.

Feng was forced to abort her second child because China limits families to one child per household. Deng could not afford to pay the fine for having a second child, so the government forced Feng to abort her child.

A picture of Feng next to the aborted fetus circulated through the Internet in China, prompting the government to respond.

“We want to return to our home and move on with our life, ” Deng said. “This was a tragedy but life has to continue.””

via Chinese couple paid for forced abortion – UPI.com.

$11,200 may not seem like much for a life. But note that this is the first publicly recorded compensation for such an act. It is the first step towards righting a historic wrong.

* China punishes officials over late-term abortion case

BBC News: “A Chinese official has been sacked and others punished over the case of a woman forced to have a late-term abortion, state-run media report.

A relative said the couple were being harassed, with banners apparently calling them traitors in Shaanxi

An investigation showed that officials “used crude means” to persuade Feng Jianmei to agree to the abortion, Xinhua news agency reports.

Ms Feng’s pregnancy was terminated at seven months because she had violated the one-child policy law.

Photos of her with the foetus caused widespread condemnation online.

China’s one-child family planning policy aims to control the country’s population, which now stands at around 1.3bn. Rights groups say the law has meant women being coerced into abortions, which Beijing denies.

Ms Feng’s case has come to symbolise the extreme measures some officials take in order to meet population targets, reports the BBC’s Martin Patience in Beijing.

Officials punished

Officials in China’s north-west province of Shaanxi were punished for having “violated the laws of central and local government on family planning”, Xinhua reports.

The head of the family planning bureau in Zhenping county, Jiang Nenghai, had been sacked. Another family planning official had also been given “administrative demerits”, Xinhua said.

Other officials in connection with the case had also been punished, Xinhua said, without elaborating further.

“According to the investigation, while persuading Feng to receive the abortion, some staff of the township government used crude means to violate her intentions,” Xinhua says.

“There was also no legal basis for the township government’s demand that Feng and her family pay a deposit of 40,000 yuan [$6,300] for a certificate allowing her to have her second child,” it added.

Ms Feng will be given compensation, Xinhua adds, without providing the details.”

via BBC News – China punishes officials over late-term abortion case.

Posted in China alert, Good news, Illegal practices, One-child policy, Rule of law, Social & cultural | 3 Comments »

Tags: Abortion, China, Family planning, one-child policy, politics

15/06/2012

* Chinese officials apologise to woman in forced abortion

BBC News: “City officials in China have apologised to a woman who was forced to have an abortion and suspended three people responsible, state media reports.

This came after photos showing a foetus and the mother, Feng Jianmei, shocked web users.

She was made to undergo the procedure in Shaanxi province in the seventh month of pregnancy, local officials said after investigating.

Chinese law clearly prohibits abortions beyond six months.

The Ankang city government said it decided to suspend three officials in Zhenping county following initial investigations. It also urged the county government to conduct a thorough review of its family planning operations, said Xinhua news.

China has long denied that its vast army of local family planning officials are using abortion to enforce the country’s one-child policy.

In this case, though, there has been a rare admission that her pregnancy was terminated against her will, and now action will be taken against certain officials.

What has made the difference appears clear.

Minutes after the abortion, a family member posted on the internet a photograph of Feng Jianmei’s aborted foetus, clearly formed at seven months, lying next to her on a hospital bed and the image went viral.

It is a classic illustration of the challenge posed to China’s one party system by the internet.

On Thursday night, the city officials apologised to Ms Feng, 27, and her family, the report said.

She was ”forced to terminate her pregnancy” at a hospital in Zhenping on 2 June, said Xinhua.

Officials in Zhenping county claimed she agreed to the abortion because she was not allowed to have a second child by law. She already has a daughter, born in 2007.

But activists said she was forced into the abortion as she could not pay the fine for having a second child.”

via BBC News – Chinese officials apologise to woman in forced abortion.

Posted in One-child policy, Politics, Rule of law, Women's rights | 2 Comments »

Tags: aborted foetus, Abortion, China, one-child policy, rare admission, seventh month of pregnancy

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