Womens Rights Without Frontiers

CBN Features Reggie Littlejohn’s Congressional Testimony: The Chilling Reason for China’s One Child Policy

Posted on June 14, 2015 by Reggie Littlejohn

This year marks the 35th anniversary of China’s One Child Policy. WRWF President Reggie Littlejohn was among those who testified before the Congressional Executive Commission on China in connection with this somber anniversary. The Christian Broadcast Network (CBN) featured Littlejohn’s testimony in two videos and an article, republished here with permission.

The Chilling Reason for China’s One Child Policy

By Paul Strand

WASHINGTON – A leading figure in the fight against China’s mass fetal genocide says China doesn’t need its deadly one-child policy anymore. In fact, the communist superpower now faces a population shortage, not a population excess.

Human rights activist Reggie Littlejohn, head of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, accuses the Chinese Communist Party of using the outdated policy to terrorize the nation’s people and keep an iron grip on them.

Power Extends to Every Womb

“I believe it’s a way for the Chinese Communist Party to demonstrate to every human being in China that the arm of their power extends from Beijing to every single womb in China to declare life or death over the baby in there,” Littlejohn said in an exclusive interview with CBN News.

Littlejohn had a chance to testify about this to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China Thursday (April 30).

Also among the witnesses was demographer Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute. He said the one-child policy has been so ruthlessly effective at killing hundreds of millions of unborn Chinese – especially baby girls – the country now faces a dangerous dearth of workers and women.

“It has helped create a declining labor force for the future,” Eberstadt explained, “a rapidly aging society, a marriage squeeze for prospective brides and grooms from the gender-imbalanced generation, and a fragmentation of family.”

“And Chinese society like all societies depends for civilization on the family structure,” Eberstadt added.

Commission Chairman Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., told CBN News this now counterproductive policy with its emphasis on forced abortions and sterilizations continues to wreak havoc and heartbreak throughout the Middle Kingdom.

“All across China, women are suffering,” Smith said. “The suicide rate is 600 women per day in China, much of it attributable to the chaos and frankly the heartbreak of having the state literally destroy your child when you wanted to have a baby.”

Women ‘Constantly Spied On’

“Women are constantly being spied on by their neighbors, their friends, their co-workers, people who are hired in the villages just to watch women’s abdomens to see if anybody looks pregnant. Anyone can inform on them,” Littlejohn told CBN News.

Littlejohn talked more about China’s one-child policy with CBN’s Paul Strand below:

Littlejohn sees this government-sponsored spying and snooping as a method for the party to keep people from organizing future Tianamen Square-type thrusts for democracy.

“What that does is it ruptures all the relationships of trust in Chinese society. And if you can’t trust anyone, you can’t organize for democracy,” Littlejohn stated. “So I believe this is a divide-and-conquer strategy by the Chinese Communist Party.”

Littlejohn also told the joint Senate/House commission that beyond the terror and the tyranny, there’s a fortune being made off the exorbitant fines charged Chinese for having “illegal” babies.

She said one study suggests “the Chinese Communist Party has taken in $314 billion since the institution of the one-child policy.”

“And it’s like the Wild West out there,” she continued. “These fines are not uniform throughout the country. It all depends on what family planning police officer shows up at your door what your fine is going to be.”

Fines Line Pockets of Local Officials

Some Chinese have been fined 10 times their annual salary.

“And there’s no accounting for it either,” Littlejohn added. “And so a lot of these fines are just going to line the pockets of the local officials.”

In her exclusive interview with CBN News, Littlejohn recalled one particularly heartbreaking story from among the hundreds of millions told by Chinese women forced to abort their children.

“She was dragged off the street seven months pregnant,” Littlejohn said of this woman. “After they were done forcibly aborting the baby that she desperately wanted, they actually came in and demanded payment for them to dispose of the body.”

“The woman didn’t have any money, so they just laid the body of her baby right next to her on the bed,” she continued.

“And I have a photograph of her looking down at and just grieving the loss of this forcibly aborted baby,” Littlejohn said. “So the cold-heartedness of the family planning police is just something that is beyond the imagination.”

Sign a petition against forced abortion in China here: http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=sign_our_petition

View the original article here: http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2015/May/The-Chilling-Reason-for-Chinas-One-Child-Policy-/

Posted in abortion, China's One Child Policy, Chinese Communist Party, communism, corruption, Forced Abortion, gendercide, One Child Policy, pro-choice, pro-life, Reggie Littlejohn, terror, Tiananmen Square, Uncategorized, women's rights, Women's Rights Without Frontiers | Comments Off

Chinese schoolteacher, 5 months pregnant, ordered to abort; then permitted to give birth

Posted on May 23, 2015 by Reggie Littlejohn

Under the One-Child Policy, a Chinese schoolteacher, five months pregnant, was ordered to abort by the end of May or lose her job. This order has just been reversed, following domestic and international media attention.

Qin Yi (sometimes translated Tan Yi) and Meng Shaoping were both divorced and both have daughters from their first marriages. Qin Yi’s residency is in Huangshan City in Anhui Province, where officials told her that she could have a second child because she divorced the father of her first child.

She later moved to Libo County, Guizhou Province, because of her job as a teacher. There, she was told she must terminate her pregnancy by the end of May or lose her job.

In Anhui, remarried couples can have a child if there are no more than two children from previous marriages. In Guizhou, however, remarried couples can have a child only if there is one child from previous marriages.

News of this situation was reported widely in China and spread internationally, causing outrage. The Family Planning Commission on the Guizhou provincial level overturned the local authorities and will allow Qin Yi to have her baby. According to the South China Morning Post, this case demonstrates “how unyielding the mainland’s birth limits continue to be despite a loosening in the 35-year-old policy to let more couples to have two children.”

Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, stated, “We are delighted that Qin Yi and her husband will be allowed to have their baby. Our hearts nevertheless go out to this couple because of the harrowing experience of coming so close to suffering the excruciating pain of a late-term forced abortion. Their experience dramatically demonstrates what I’ve been saying all along: China is continuing its horrific practice of late term forced abortions. This is savagery and it must be stopped.”

Littlejohn continued, “China has not ‘eased’ its One-Child Policy. It has merely tweaked it. The fact that the Chinese Communist Party is allowing some couples to have a second child does not mean that they have ceased their appalling methods of enforcement. Couples still need to have a birth permit for the first and for the second child, or face forced abortion.”

“This case also demonstrates that the One-Child Policy is not enforced uniformly throughout China. A pregnancy may be allowed in one province and not allowed in another. There’s no uniformity. It’s like the Wild West when it comes to the coercive enforcement of birth limits,” she added.

“Also, the fact that the CCP reversed its decision and allowed this couple to have their baby demonstrates that it does in fact respond to pressure, both domestic and international – despite its protestations to the contrary – so we need to keep up the pressure,” Littlejohn concluded.

To sign a petition against forced abortion, click here: http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=sign_our_petition

View Stop Forced Abortion – China’s War on Women! Video (4 mins) http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/?nav=stop-forced-abortion

Chinese Mom Has Abortion Because Her Only Child Threatened Suicide if She Had Another Baby

Posted on May 22, 2015 by Reggie Littlejohn

By Sarah Zagorski

Partially republished with permission from LifeNews.com. Link to full article at the end.

The Shanghi List has reported that a 44-year-old pregnant woman has aborted her baby because her 13-year-old threatened to commit suicide. Last year, Xiao and her husband decided that they wanted to have another child after China “relaxed” its one-child policy; but their daughter, Wen Wen, didn’t respond well to the news of another baby.

Xiao said, “After Wen Wen [Xiao’s first child] learned about my pregnancy, she often said she would jump to her death from a building if we kept the baby.” Tragically, when the couple spotted cut marks on their daughters arm they decided to abort their baby because they were afraid her threats were real.

In 2013, the U.S. Department of State’s Trafficking in Person (TIP) report revealed that China has refused to acknowledge that its policy is creating a gender imbalance and fueling trafficking.

Reggie Littlejohn, the president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, explained that the brutal One-Child Policy is largely to blame for many of the problems in China.

She said, “The One Child Policy is the driving force in trafficking. Couples who do not have a son want to obtain a boy through trafficking. Couples who already have a son may want to traffic a girl into their family, to ensure that their son will have a bride when he grows up. In China, the marriage market is on the road to collapse. Because of the pronounced gender imbalance caused by gendercide – the selective abortion of baby girls — there are currently about 37 million more males living in China than females.”

View original article at LifeNews.com: http://www.lifenews.com/2015/01/21/chinese-mom-has-abortion-because-her-only-child-threatened-suicide-if-she-had-another-baby/

Posted in China's One Child Policy, human trafficking, sex selective abortion, sexual slavery, suicide, Uncategorized, Women's Rights Without Frontiers | Comments Off

The Reasons the Chinese Government Will Not Relinquish Coercive Population Control Under the One Child Policy

Posted on April 30, 2015 by Reggie Littlejohn

Testimony of Reggie Littlejohn, President
Women’s Rights Without Frontiers
April 30, 2015
Congressional Executive Commission on China

Honorable members of the Commission, Representative Chris Smith, Senator Marco Rubio, distinguished fellow panelists, ladies and gentlemen, I am grateful for this opportunity to testify here today, as we commemorate the 35^th anniversary of China’s brutal One Child Policy.

I have been asked to comment upon “China’s insistence on keeping the One-Child Policy, despite looming demographic concerns.”

China has not “eased,” “relaxed” or “abandoned” the One-Child Policy, Despite Reports

China periodically tweaks its One Child Policy. These minor modifications are routinely exaggerated. For example, under the misleading headline, “China to Ease One-Child Policy,” Xinhua News Agency reported that China would lift the ban on a second child, if either parent is an only child, beginning on January 1, 2014. It was already the case that couples could have a second child if both parents were themselves only children. This minor adjustment did not “ease” the One Child Policy. It merely tweaked it.

Indeed, in apparent response to quell overly optimistic speculation that this small change represents a major reform, Xinhua ran another report soon after the original announcement: “Birth Policy Changes Are No Big Deal.” In this second article Xinhua states that Wang Pei’an, deputy director of the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC), told Xinhua that “the number of couples covered by the new policy is not very large across the country.”[1]

The minor modification of the policy that took place on January 1, 2014: 1) did not affect a large percentage of couples in China; 2) was not subject to a timetable in which to implement it; 3) retained the dreaded “birth intervals” between children (if a woman gets pregnant before the interval has lapsed, she risks forced abortion); and 4) makes no promise to end the coercive enforcement of the Policy.

Noticeably absent from the Chinese Communist party’s announcement is any mention of human rights. Even though it will now allow some couples to have a second child, China has not promised to end forced abortion, forced sterilization, or forced contraception. The coercive enforcement of China’s one-child policy is its core. Instituting a two-child policy in certain, limited circumstances will not end forced abortion or forced sterilization.

The problem with the one-child policy is not the number of children “allowed.” Rather, it is the fact that the CCP is telling women how many children they can have and then enforcing that limit through forced abortion and forced sterilization. Even if all couples were allowed two children, there is no guarantee that the CCP will cease their appalling methods of enforcement. Regardless of the number of children allowed, women who get pregnant without permission will still be dragged out of their homes, strapped down to tables, and forced to abort babies that they want.

Further, instituting a two-child policy will not end gendercide. Indeed, areas in which two children currently are allowed are especially vulnerable to gendercide. According to the 2009 British Medical Journal study of data from the 2005 national census, in nine provinces, for “second order births” where the first child is a girl, 160 boys were born for every 100 girls. In two provinces, Jiangsu and Anhui, for the second child, there were 190 boys for every hundred girls born. This study stated, “sex selective abortion accounts for almost all the excess males.”

To say that China has “relaxed” or “eased” its One Child Policy under these circumstances is entirely unwarranted.[2] Because of this gendercide, there are an estimated 37 million Chinese men who will never marry because their future wives were terminated before they were born. This gender imbalance is a powerful, driving force behind trafficking in women and sexual slavery, not only in China, but in neighboring nations as well.

Furthermore, all the reasons the Chinese government has given for this adjustment are economic or demographic: China’s dwindling labor force, the country’s growing elderly population, and the severe gender imbalance. The adjustment is a tacit acknowledgement that continuation of the one-child policy will lead to economic and demographic disaster. The policy was originally instituted for economic reasons. It is ironic that through this very policy, China has written its own economic, demographic death sentence.

Even if China were to completely abandon the One Child Policy and all population control now, demographers worry that it might be too little, too late to avert the demographic disaster it has caused. As one researcher stated, “Even if the family-planning policy were terminated today, it would be too late to solve our rapidly ageing population, the drastic shrinkage of the labour force and the gaping hole in social-security funds that the country has already begun struggling with.”[3]

Despite the demographic pressure to end the policy, the Chinese government recently denied that it has plans to implement a two-child policy in the near future.[4]

Continuing the One Child Policy makes no demographic sense. China’s population problem is not that it has too many people, but too few young people and too few women. Limiting births can no longer justify the policy.

The One Child Policy will turn 35 on September 25, 2015. The fertility rate has fallen to approximately 1.5 children per woman, far below the replacement level of 2.1. These birth rates are dangerously low.

In addition, the most recent modification of the One Child Policy has failed to produce the expected number of births, as couples are self-limiting the size of their families.[5] Why, then, does the Chinese Communist Party keep the One Child Policy?

1) In my opinion, the Chinese Communist Party will never abolish the One-Child Policy, because the government is exploiting the One Child Policy as social control, masquerading as population control.

The One Child Policy was formally instituted on September 25, 1980 in response to the population explosion under the Mao era, when the average fertility was 5.9 children per woman. The One Child Policy began as a means to control the population, however brutal and misguided. The terror of forced abortion and involuntary sterilization was a by-product of the Policy.

Now that keeping the Policy makes no demographic sense, I believe that terror is the purpose of the Policy. Forced abortion continues in China, terrifying both women and men.[6] Some of these forced abortions have been so violent that the women themselves sometimes die along with their full term babies.[7] Forced abortion is so terrifying that victims at times succumb to mental illness and China has the highest female suicide rate in the world.[8]

Men also are terrorized. Some have been killed or maimed for life.[9] Others have lost control and murdered family planning officials.[10] Some men have resorted to suicide in protest over the excessive fines imposed by the government.[11] The spirit of the Cultural Revolution lives on in the family planning police, who have been able to steal, intimidate, torture and kill with relative impunity.

The Chinese Communist Party is a brutal, totalitarian regime. It has many human rights abuses: the detention and torture of human rights lawyers, activists and journalists; religious persecution, the execution of prisoners to harvest their organs for transplant. However egregious, each of these abuses touches only a sliver of Chinese society. The One Child Policy is unique in that it touches everyone.

2) The One Child Policy Is Enormously Profitable for the Chinese Communist Party.

The One Child Policy’s system of fees and fines is an important source of revenue for the Chinese Communist Party. These fines are arbitrary and inconsistently applied throughout China, but may be as much as ten times a person’s annual salary. Very few can afford to pay these “terror fines.” In high profile cases, the fines may run in the millions of dollars.[12]

It has been estimated that the Chinese Communist Party has received as much as $314 billion in family planning fines since 1980.[13] The use of these fines is not subject to accountability, so they may be used simply to line the pockets of the family planning officials or to fund other government projects under the table. This system (or lack thereof) provides a strong incentive to keep the Policy in place.[14]

3) The One Child Policy’s Infrastructure of Coercion Can Be Turned to Crush Dissent of Any Kind

There is growing unrest inside China. “[I]nternal Chinese law enforcement data on so-called “mass incidents” – a wide variety of protests ranging from sit-ins to strikes, marches and rallies, and even genuine riots – indicated that China has seen a sustained, rapid increase in those incidents from 8,700 in 1993 to nearly 60,000 in 2003, to more than 120,000 in 2008.[15] Meanwhile, there are as many as 1 million Family Planning Officials.[16] This army of Family Planning Officials can be turned in any direction to crush dissent of any sort. Does the Chinese Communist Party regard this army as necessary to maintain control in a tinder-box situation?

4) The One Child Policy Breaks Bonds of Trust, Discouraging Dissent

In addition to official Family Planning Police, the One Child Policy employs a system of paid informants – “womb police.” Anyone can inform on an illegally pregnant women – her neighbors, friends, co-workers, people in the village who watch women’s abdomens to see who might be pregnant. On May 15, 2012, I testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights, together with Mei Shunping, a victim of five forced abortions. She described the way her factory enforced the One Child Policy. “If one worker violated the rules, all would be punished. Workers monitored each other.” The women became informed on one another. Predictably, friendships were destroyed.[17]

In addition, if an illegally pregnant women runs away to escape a forced abortion, members of her extended family may be detained and tortured.[18] This puts enormous pressure on the woman to give herself up for an abortion. The system of paid informants and the persecution of family members and neighbors rupture the natural bonds of love and trust in Chinese society. People feel that there is no one they can trust.

Could the Chinese Communist Party be exploiting this rupture in relationship to divide and conquer? If people cannot trust anyone, they cannot organize for democracy.

Conclusion

In my opinion, the Chinese Communist Party will not relinquish coercive population control because 1) it enables them to exert social control through terror; 2) it is a lucrative profit center; 3) it provides and infrastructure of coercion that can be used to crush dissent of any sort; and 4) it ruptures relationships of trust, so that people cannot organize for change. I believe that the Chinese Communist Party is maintaining its grip on power by shedding the blood of the innocent women and babies of China.

China’s One Child Policy is the largest and most disastrous social experiment in the history of the world. Through it, the Chinese Communist Party boasts that it has “prevented” 400 million births. This is the hallmark of Communist regimes – the peacetime killing of their own citizens. Now China faces demographic disaster. Ironically, the Chinese Communist Party instituted the One Child Policy for economic reasons, but through it, it has written its own economic death sentence.

Policy Recommendations:

We respectfully request that the U.S. government urge the Chinese government to:

*Abolish the One Child Policy and all forms of coercive population control;

*Offer incentives for couples to have girls;[19]

*Offer pensions to couples who do not have a son, ensuring that parents of girls will not become impoverished in their old age; and

*Abolish the hukou system, so that all children will have access to healthcare and education.

In addition, we respectfully request that the U.S. government:

*Establish principles of Corporate Social Responsibility, to ensure that U.S. corporations do not allow coercive population control measures to be taken against their employees; and

*Defund UNFPA, unless and until UNFPA stops supporting or participating in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization in China, in violation of the 1985 Kemp-Kasten Amendment.

[1]“Birth policy changes are no big deal.” http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/indepth/2013-11/16/c_132893477.htm. 11/16/13.

[2]“China’s One-Child Policy ‘Reform’ Won’t End Abuses: US Group.” http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/policy-07232014161119.html. 7/23/14; “China Hasn’t ‘Eased’ Its One-Child Policy.” http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/364200/china-hasnt-eased-its-one-child-policy-reggie-littlejohn. 11/18/13; “China Not Easing One Child Policy, Says Campaigner.” http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/china-not-easing-one-child-policy-says-campaigner. 11/22/13; “Little Change in Practice for China’s One Child Family Policy.”http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/nov/24/little-change-in-practice-for-chinas-one-child-fam/?page=all. 11/24/13.

[3] “Critic of One Child Policy in from Cold.” http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1224885/critic-one-child-policy-cold

4/28/13; “Easing One Child Policy May Be Too Late.” http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/easing-one-child-policy-may-be-too-late. 1/7/14.

[4]“China denies full implementation of ‘two-child policy.” http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2015-04/10/content_20407560.htm. 4/10/15.

[5]“Why China’s New Family Planning Policy Hasn’t Worked.” http://thediplomat.com/2015/04/why-chinas-new-family-planning-policy-hasnt-worked/. 4/20/15.

[6]“China Couple Speak of ‘Forced Abortion.’” http://news.sky.com/story/1150016/china-couple-speak-of-forced-abortion 10/4/13; “Four Uyghur Women Forced to Abort Their Babies in Zinjiang.” http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/abortion-12302013050902.html; “Xinjiang authorities try to force six women to abort for violating one-child policy.” http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Xinjiang-authorities-try-to-force-six-women-to-abort-for-violating-one-child-policy-29925.html. 12/30/13
[7]“China Couple Speak of ‘Forced Abortion.’” http://news.sky.com/story/1150016/china-couple-speak-of-forced-abortion 10/4/13; “Four Uyghur Women Forced to Abort Their Babies in Zinjiang.” http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/abortion-12302013050902.html; “Xinjiang authorities try to force six women to abort for violating one-child policy.” http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Xinjiang-authorities-try-to-force-six-women-to-abort-for-violating-one-child-policy-29925.html. 12/30/13.

[8]“Forced abortion at 7 Months – The Horror of China’s One Child Policy Sparks Further Outrage.” http://www.christianpost.com/news/forced-abortion-at-7-months-the-horror-of-chinas-one-child-policy-sparks-further-outrage-101764/ 8/7/13; “Chinese couple seeks damages for forced abortion.” http://www.worldmag.com/2014/01/chinese_couple_seeks_damages_for_forced_abortion 1/10/14.

[9]“China: Family Planning Official Stabs Man to Death,” http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/blog/?p=147. 4/5/11.

[10]“Crazed Chinese father-of-four stabs two government officials to death over one child policy.” .” http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2376771/Chinese-father-kills-1-child-policy-officials-registering-4th-child.html 7/24/13.

[11] “Chinese father of four commits suicide over one-child policy fines so his children can go to school.” http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/chinese-father-of-four-commits-suicide-over-one-child-policy-fines-so-his-c. 5/26/14; “Farmer drinks poison after being fined for violations of family planning policy.” http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/830847.shtml 12/8/13

[12]“Zhang Yimou’s children spark one-child policy debate.” http://en.people.cn/90782/8236414.html. 8/8/13.

[13]“The Brutal Truth: A shocking case of forced abortion fuels resentment against China’s one-child policy.” http://www.economist.com/node/21557369. 6/23/12.

[14]“Huge Fines for Violators of One-Child Policy, but Little Accounting.” http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/12/huge-fines-for-violators-of-one-child-policy-but-little-accounting/. 12/12/13; “Population Control Is Called Big Revenue Source in China.” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/27/world/asia/chinese-provinces-collected-billions-in-family-planning-fines-lawyer-says.html. 6/26/13; “China has collected $3.1 billion from one-child policy violators so far this year.” http://qz.com/154079/china-has-collected-3-1-billion-from-one-child-policy-violators-so-far-this-year/. 12/5/13; “Chinese Family Planning Officials Misappropriated $260 Million in Fines.” http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/293660-chinese-family-planning-officials-misappropriated-260-million-in-fines/. 9/20/13.

[15] “China’s Social Unrest Problem – Testimony before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.” Murray Scott Tanner, Ph.D. http://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/Tanner_Written%20Testimony.pdf. 5/15/14; see also, “Rising Protests in China.” http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2012/02/rising-protests-in-china/100247/. 2/17/12.

[16]“Family Planning: Enforcing with a smile.” http://www.economist.com/news/china/21638131-enforcers-chinas-one-child-policy-are-trying-new-gentler-approach-enforcing-smile. 1/10/15. If China’s Family Planning Officials were an army, they would tie with North Korea as the sixth largest army in the world. “World’s Largest Armies.” http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/armies.htm.

[17]“Testimony of Mei Shunping, Victim of Five Forced Abortions in China.” http://archives.republicans.foreignaffairs.house.gov/112/HHRG-112-FA16-WState-ShunpingM-20120515.pdf. 5/15/12.

[18]Testimony of “Wujian,” Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, 11/10/09. http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=cases&nav2=wujian#anchor

[19] We have found in our “Save a Girl” campaign that the encouragement of modest monetary support is enough to make the difference between life and death to a baby girl. “Twin Girls Saved from Abortion in China, Husband’s Family Only Wanted Boys.” http://www.lifenews.com/2014/05/30/twin-girls-saved-from-abortion-in-china-husband-family-told-wife-they-only-wanted-boys/ 5/30/14.

Posted in China's One Child Policy, Chris Smith, coerced abortion, female suicide, Forced Abortion, forced sterilization, gendercide, Marco Rubio, One Child Policy, pro-choice, pro-life, Reggie Littlejohn, two child policy, Uncategorized, Women's Rights Without Frontiers | Comments Off

Viral Photos of Little Girl and Her Dad Capture Why China is a Ticking Time Bomb

Posted on April 24, 2015 by Reggie Littlejohn

By Marisa Lengor Kwaning

Reprinted with permission from bound4life.

On the eve of Chinese New Year, photos of a father and daughter traveling to see her grandparents have gone viral – picked up by dozens of blogs and media outlets worldwide.

Seen waiting together in Beijing Capital International Airport, Chen Yen has handcuffed himself to his little girl to ensure she is not kidnapped for use as a future bride.

“I saw a warning by police on the TV to take care as traffickers and pickpockets would be out stealing in the holiday rush,” said Mr. Chen according to reporting by The Daily Mail. “I don’t care about pickpockets, but I do care very much about losing my daughter.”

Such a stark image begs the question: how did China reach this point? The story stretches back over three decades, to a government policy that has resulted in the prevalence of sex-selective abortions.

Strict government control over family size has caused a serious gender imbalance due to a preference for sons, with today 33 million more Chinese men than women. “As more men remain unmarried, it raises the risks of anti-social and violent behavior,” notes one recent report.

Major media outlets such as the New York Times and BBC News have recently touted a supposed shift in China’s totalitarian policies – from allowing Chinese parents to have a single child, to now proposing incentives for a newly revised Two Child Policy.

Yet the true picture is not as reassuring as the “official” story would indicate. Thirty-five years of national population control have had an undeniably troubling impact on Chinese society.

According to China’s former Minister of Health Gao Qiang, China has 400 million fewer people today as a result of these policies. In other words, China has lost more people than the current 321.4 million population of the United States.In Shanghai, men search postings at the “marriage market” (Photo: Chris Bentley / Flickr)

The Chinese Communist Party has a long history of falsely representing its family-planning regulations. Originally implemented in 1979, the One Child Policy utilizes forced abortions, forced sterilization and forced contraception to manage population growth.

A 2013 Chinese law sought to revise this policy, stating that families in which one parent was a single child would be allowed to bear two children. However, revising regulations has not reversed the human rights violations that persist.

“Even if all couples were allowed two children, there is no guarantee that the Chinese Communist Party will cease their appalling methods of enforcement,” says human rights activist and former lawyer Reggie Littlejohn.

Reggie Littlejohn speaks at a press conference in the Canadian Parliament
(Photo: WRWF)

Describing the violent methods that have persisted for decades, Littlejohn continues, “Women who get pregnant without permission will still be dragged out of their homes, strapped down to tables, and forced to abort babies that they want, even up to the ninth month of pregnancy.”

According to the latest report of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, family planning regulations in 22 out China’s 31 provinces explicitly instruct officials to implement coercive measures such as forced abortions as their supposed remedy to solve the issue of “out-of-plan” pregnancies.

“Pro-choice and pro-life advocates can agree: No one should support forced abortion, because it is not a choice,” concludes Littlejohn, who advocates for justice through Women’s Rights Without Frontiers.With hundreds of millions of abortions, the loss of life in China is staggering (Image: Metro UK)

Chinese families’ preference for sons became the subject of a 2014 New York City art exhibit, as artist Prune Nourry sought to raise awareness of the human rights injustices created by population control.

“Standing for the value of every human life is a cause that can change the culture of China,” says Matt Lockett, Executive Director of Bound4LIFE International, which is involved in many nations globally. “A prayer movement has already begun that is contending for life with the same determination as this father protecting his daughter at the airport.”

Read the original article at bound4life.com: http://bound4life.com/blog/2015/02/18/viral-photos-of-little-girl-and-her-dad-capture-why-china-is-a-ticking-time-bomb/

Posted in bound4life, China's One Child Policy, gendercide, human trafficking, One Child Policy, Reggie Littlejohn, Uncategorized, Women's Rights Without Frontiers | Comments Off

Police Rescue 37 Babies From Baby-Selling Trafficking Ring in China

Posted on April 15, 2015 by Reggie Littlejohn

By Sarah Zagorski

Partially republished with permission from LifeNews.com. Link to full article at the bottom.

Earlier this [year], China Central Television reported that authorities rescued 37 babies and a toddler out of an abandoned factory in the southwestern province of Shandong. The children were found in poor condition and many were suffering from HIV-AIDS and malnutrition. Police first became suspicious of the trafficking ring when they noticed that pregnant women were being herded into the factory.

According to CNN, human traffickers were recruiting pregnant women in the area willing to sell their babies and hid them in the factory until they gave birth. Then, after the women had their babies, they gave the newborns over to the traffickers and left.

A Chinese police official, Chen Shiqu, said that the incident is a “new criminal pattern” in which child traffickers take pregnant women to a specific place to give birth. Currently, police have 103 people in custody who are suspected of selling or buying children.

As LifeNews previously reported, Reggie Littlejohn, the president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, explained that the brutal One-Child Policy is largely to blame for the trafficking problems in China. She said, “The One Child Policy is the driving force in trafficking. Couples who do not have a son want to obtain a boy through trafficking. Couples who already have a son may want to traffic a girl into their family, to ensure that their son will have a bride when he grows up. In China, the marriage market is on the road to collapse. Because of the pronounced gender imbalance caused by gendercide – the selective abortion of baby girls – there are currently about 37 million more males living in China than females.”

Read the full article at LifeNews.com: http://www.lifenews.com/2015/01/16/police-rescue-37-babies-from-baby-selling-trafficking-ring-in-china/

Posted in China's One Child Policy, coerced abortion, human trafficking, Reggie Littlejohn, Uncategorized | Comments Off

Chinese Men Outnumber Women by 33 Million After Decades of Gender Bias

Posted on April 9, 2015 by Reggie Littlejohn

Republished with permission from Radio Free Asia

(Radio Free Asia) – China was home to 33 million more men than women in 2014, renewing a long-running controversy over selective abortion, abandoned baby girls, and the country’s family planning restrictions, according to government figures released this week.

China’s population stood at 1.36 billion at the end of last year, according to official statistics released this week, of whom 700 million are men and 667 million are women.

“The gender ratio at birth is still dangerously high, with 115.88 boys born to every 100 girls in 2014,” the official Xinhua news agency reported. The figures compare with a global average of 103 to 107 boys to every 100 girls.

China’s gender ratio peaked far above the global average of 107 in 2004 at 121.18, and fell to 115.8 in 2014, the National Health and Family Planning Commission said in a statement on its website on Wednesday.

But it warned that the ratio is still higher than in any other country.

“The gender imbalance in [China] is the most serious in the world, and has lasted for the longest period of time and affected the largest number of people,” the Commission said.

It said the government plans to crack down further on blood-testing to determine the sex of a fetus, as families continue to send blood samples overseas for testing to circumvent a domestic ban on the practice.

It reiterated warnings to agencies who make money sending the samples overseas, reminding medical staff that carrying, mailing or transporting blood samples abroad is illegal.

One-child policy

Experts said the gender imbalance in China’s population can be traced back to the start of the “one-child policy” during the 1970s.

Gender studies scholar Lu Pin, who edits the online newspaper Women’s Voice, said the policy had combined with a preference in Chinese traditional culture for male heirs, whose duty it is to care for their parents in old age.

“The one-child policies actually allow for the gender bias in favor of boys, and, as such, can be said to bear some responsibility for reinforcing it,” Lu said.

“In rural areas, the one-child policy was always in effect a ‘one-and-a-half child policy,’ because couples would be allowed a second child if the first was a girl,” she said.

“If the first-born was a boy, then they wouldn’t be allowed to have another.”

She said the government had colluded with traditional ideas that boys are more valuable than girls.

“We should really reflect on this aspect of our family-planning policies,” Lu added.

Cheng Yuan, acting director of the non-governmental Pingji Center in Guangzhou, said the stringent population controls of the past four decades had also ensured that there aren’t so many younger people to take care of the country’s elderly.

“The one-child policy has caused other problems, too. Namely that of an aging population,” Cheng said.

“The burden on [younger] relatives will be much heavier, while the aging problem is more apparent at a time when China’s social security and welfare system is far from ideal,” she said.

Easing of restrictions

In the first significant easing of the one-child policy in nearly 30 years, Beijing announced at the end of 2013 that couples will be allowed to have two children if one of the parents is an only child.

Previously, most parents were restricted to having one child, although the political and financial elite were able to afford the financial penalties, and often have larger families.

Urban couples were permitted a second child if both parents do not have siblings, while rural couples were allowed to have two children if their first-born was a girl.

But overseas women’s rights campaigners say the changes aren’t likely to reduce the number of forced abortions and abandoned girl babies, or ease human trafficking in the country, as a growing number of rural men have trouble finding wives.

According to Reggie Littlejohn, founder and president of California-based Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, allowing couples to have two children if either parent is an only child under a so-called reform of the one-child policy won’t end voluntary, sex-selective abortion of baby girls.

Littlejohn has called on Beijing to reduce the numbers of aborted or abandoned girls by providing economic incentives to families giving birth to girls and special compensation to retirement-age couples who have no sons to support them.

And many couples continue to face large fines, seizure of their property and loss of their jobs, as well as forced abortions and sterilizations, and even violent forced evictions by local officials, if they break the rules.

China last year launched pilot drop zones for unwanted infants in 25 major cities last year in a bid to prevent unwanted babies from being left to die on the streets, but many schemes were forced to close after being overwhelmed, mostly by infants with severe disabilities.

Reported by Lin Ping for RFA’s Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

Read original article at rfa.com: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/gender-01222015125826.html

Posted in abortion, China's One Child Policy, coerced abortion, communist, Forced Abortion, gendercide, One Child Policy, pro-choice, pro-life, Reggie Littlejohn, reproductive rights, right to choose, sex selective abortion, two child policy, Uncategorized | Comments Off

Women ‘still dying’ after China’s 1-child policy ‘eased’

Posted on April 2, 2015 by Reggie Littlejohn

Congressman Chris Smith, Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng, and Women’s Rights Without Frontiers President Reggie Littlejohn spoke out against coercive family planning in China at The Heritage Foundation in October 2014

By Bob Unruh

Republished with permission from World Net Daily

A women’s-rights activist battling China over its one-child policy says no one should be fooled by the communist government’s insistence that the practice has been “eased,” because the infamous forced abortions continue.

“The core of the problem is not whether the government is allowing one child or two children,” Reggie Littlejohn, president of Womens Rights Without Frontiers, told WND on Wednesday.

“The government is still telling how many children people can have and is enforcing that limit with coerced abortions,” she said. “And it’s not clear to me that there are fewer abortions. Women and babies still are dying.”

Littlejohn pointed out China still requires a birth permit for the first child and for the second child.

“Without a permit, there still are forced abortions, unless you’re rich enough to buy your way out,” she said.

Her organization has created an Internet petition calling for an end to forced abortions.

Littlejohn’s frustration stems from things like a recent China Daily headline that stated “Shanghai couples urged to have 2nd children.”

Some organizations are declaring such headlines a “victory” in the fight against the restrictive nation’s one-child policy.

But Littlejohn said that “to proclaim victory while women and babies in China are dying – that is misleading.”

On Jan. 1, 2014, the Chinese Communist Party “tweaked” the policy that has brought forced abortion to hundreds of millions of women.

According to the new policy, some women – those who are only children themselves or have a husband who is an only child – are being allowed a second child, if they obtain permission.

Littlejohn noted one non-profit organization recently released a statement that it “would like to celebrate and rejoice” in the “victory” that additional babies have been born under the most recent exception.

“Their statement – and the reports published in the mainstream media – do not mention the fact that the Chinese Communist Party has made no promise whatsoever to end coercive birth control,” she said.

In fact, the government said at the same time it was urging couples to have more children that National Health and Family Planning Commission officials said in November 2014 that China had no plans to suspend or further relax its one-child policy.

Blind activist Chen Guangcheng, at a Heritage Foundation event last fall, described the brutal government practices.

“In today’s China, under the communist rule, the government can put their hand into your body, grab your baby out of your womb, and kill your baby in your face,” he said.

At the same event, Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., said it was “the most egregious, vicious attack on women ever.”

China’s one-child policy announced in 1979 is state-sponsored violence against women and children – including and especially the girl child – and constitutes massive crimes against humanity,” Smith said.

Littlejohn said the “coercive enforcement of the one-child policy continues unabated, destroying women, children, whole families – and indeed, the fabric of Chinese society.”

“It constitutes the greatest women’s rights violation on the face of the earth and in the history of the world. Whether you are pro-life or pro-choice, no one supports forced abortion, because it is not a choice. The one-child policy does not need to be ‘eased.’ It needs to be abolished.”

Her organization has monitored some of the policy’s consequent horrors, including murder and suicide, that still are prevalent.

For example, parents who don’t have a permit for a child sometimes are charged “social compensation fees” of up to 14 times a person’s annual salary.

Without making those payments, however, the children are denied health care and education.

Most abuses from the policy never are reported, she said, but among some cases that did come to light:

A man in the Guangxi Region stabbed to death two government workers because they told him he could not registered his child without paying the fees.

In Hunan Province, a husband demanded compensation from the Chinese government, claiming that his wife, Gong Qifeng, has suffered from schizophrenia and violent behavior since she was forcibly aborted at seven months in November 2011.

A farmer in Hebei Province who did not have the money to pay the extra fines and fees committed suicide by drinking pesticide “during a dispute with family planning officials.”

And an obstetrician in Shaanxi province, Zhang Shuxia, was convicted of trafficking seven infants after she had convinced their parents that the infants were seriously ill or deceased. She was given a suspended death sentence.

“The minor modification of the policy that took place on January 1, 2014: 1) does not affect a large percentage of couples in China; 2) retains the dreaded ‘birth intervals’ between children (if a woman gets pregnant before the interval has lapsed, she may be subject to forced abortion); and 3) makes no promise to end the coercive enforcement of the policy,” Littlejohn said in a statement.

“To proclaim ‘victory’ under these circumstances is entirely unwarranted and may mislead many into thinking that the One Child Policy is a thing of the past,” her statement said.

“This is a time to increase pressure for change, not to release it,” she said.

WND reported Littlejohn’s criticism of Washington’s decision to promote China from Tier 3 to Tier 2 status on its watch list of human rights violators.

“The Chinese government’s efforts to remedy the problems that brought it to a ‘Tier 3′ status range from ineffective to non-existent,” Littlejohn said at the time.

Her new comments followed the release by Washington of its 2014 Trafficking in Persons report.

“The report appears to attribute this promotion to a technical modification of the one-child policy,” Littlejohn said.

The State Department reasoned that the Chinese government “maintained efforts to prevent trafficking in persons.”

“In November 2013, the government modified its birth limitation policy to allow families with one single-child parent to have a second child, a change that may affect future demand for prostitution and for foreign women as brides for Chinese men – both of which may be procured by force or coercion. TIP Report, p. 134.”

Littlejohn said the fact that China “tweaked” the policy “does not signify that it ‘maintained efforts to prevent trafficking in persons.’”

“Allowing a relatively small number of families to have a second child will not end gendercide or sexual slavery in China,” she said.

“The selective abortion and abandonment of baby girls is most prevalent in the countryside, where couples already can have a second child if the first child is a girl,” Littlejohn said. “Even if the most recent modification were to improve gender ratios at birth, the impact on sexual slavery would not be felt for decades to come.”

Read original article at wnd.com: http://www.wnd.com/2015/02/women-still-dying-after-chinas-1-child-policy-eased/

Posted in abortion, Chen Guangcheng, China, China's One Child Policy, Chris Smith, coerced abortion, Forced Abortion, forced sterilization, gendercide, Heritage Foundation, One Child Policy, pro-choice, pro-life, Reggie Littlejohn, reproductive health, reproductive rights, right to choose, Trafficking in Persons Report, two child policy, Uncategorized | Comments Off

Reggie Littlejohn Speaks at United Nations Three Times — Charges Complicity with Forced Abortion in China

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Reggie Littlejohn

Reggie Littlejohn speaks to leaders from dozens of nations at the UN headquarters, March 19, 2015. Credit: Voice of America, Ron Shi

Dear Friends,

I was humbled to speak three times at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women earlier this month, to standing room only crowds representing more than 30 nations. Our message: forced abortion and gendercide under China’s One Child Policy are the greatest crimes against women and girls in the world today. Further, the U.S. and the U.N. are complicit through funding the UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. Our message was published far and wide, including in the Chinese press, prompting major pieces in Voice of America and Radio Free Asia. The Women’s United Nations Reporting Network published our Statement to tens of thousands of women’s rights activists all over the world. Here is an excellent piece by WorldNetDaily, republished with permission.

U.N., U.S. Complicit in Worldwide War on Women

UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations and the Obama administration are turning a blind eye as millions of girls in China and India are murdered, and women are forced to undergo abortions and sterilizations.

A group of women’s-rights activists made that explosive accusation Friday at a standing-room-only event, as the U.N. marks the 20th anniversary of the World Conference on Women.

“China is so powerful in the United Nations no one wants to offend them, so they are

Reggie Littlejohn spoke to a stand room only crowd at the UN on March 13, 2015, together with Rebecca Oas of C-FAM, Anne Morse of the Population Research Institute, and Arina Grossu of the Family Research Institute. Photo courtesy of FRC.

willing to turn a blind eye to the biggest women’s-rights issue in the world today – forced abortions in China,” Reggie Littlejohn, president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers told WND.

The Family Research Council, Population Research Institute and the Catholic Family and Research Institute joined Littlejohn to draw attention to the widespread incidence of forced abortion, forced sterilization and outright murder of female infants in China and India.

A U.N. expert estimates up to 200 million women are missing in the world today due to ‘gendercide,’ the selective abortion, abandonment or fatal neglect of baby girls.

“The words, ‘it’s a girl,’ are the deadliest words on Earth when said at the birth of a child” in China and India, Littlejohn said.

The Chinese Communist Party boasts its “One-Child Policy” has “prevented” 400 million lives – a number greater than the entire population of the United States and Canada. The Party’s use of forced abortion is well documented and is compounded by the widespread use of sex-selective abortions by parents seeking to have a male child. When couples are restricted to one child, women are often pressured by husbands and in-laws to only give birth to a boy.

It’s reported that China has 13 million abortions per year – that’s 35,000 per day and 1,485 per hour. While China’s population is four times greater than that of the U.S., the abortion rate is 13 times higher.

The U.S. is complicit with forced abortions in China through funding of the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), Littlejohn charged.

“In China, the UNFPA and International Planned Parenthood have been working hand in hand with the Chinese Communist Party on family planning, which has been found to be coercive,” she said.

Previous administrations cut funding for UNFPA because of its complicity with forced abortion and forced family planning in China.

“One of the first things President Obama did on coming into office was to restore that funding,” noted Littlejohn.

“Hillary Clinton has come out strongly opposing forced abortion and forced sterilization in China on one hand, and on the other hand she has said we’re not going to let human rights get in the way of our trade relations,” Littlejohn said.

President Clinton’s administration was the first to de-link human rights from trade relations with China.

“Since then, human rights in China has plummeted to appalling depths. I believe a lot of the responsibility for the horrific condition of human rights in China has to do with that delinking that happened in the Clinton administration,” charged Littlejohn.

WND reported how Beijing used pro-”free trade” advisers inside the Clinton administration to persuade President Clinton to ignore human-rights abuses in China and lay the foundation for wholesale U.S. investment in the communist nation. The Clinton family has received millions of dollars in speaking fees and donations to the family foundation from companies doing business in or tied to China.

The U.N. has been marking the 20th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women this week. Dignitaries from around the world attended that conference in Beijing 20 years ago, including most notably Hillary Clinton. Events at U.N. headquarters in New York this month are discussing what progress has been made on the status of women.

Read the original WorldNetDaily article here:

U.N., U.S. Complicit in Worldwide War on Women
http://www.wnd.com/2015/03/charge-u-n-u-s-complicit-in-worldwide-war-on-women/

Note: WRWF thanks the NGOs co-sponsoring the UNCSW events at which she is speaking: Endeavour Forum, Family Research Council, C-Fam, Eagle Forum and the Population Research Institute.

Posted in China's One Child Policy, coerced abortion, Forced Abortion, forced sterilization, One Child Policy, pro-choice, pro-life, Reggie Littlejohn, reproductive health, reproductive rights, right to choose, Uncategorized, UNCSW, UNFPA, United Nations, war on women, women's rights, Women's Rights Without Frontiers | Comments Off

Littlejohn to U.N. — 20 Years After Beijing, No Progress Ending Forced Abortion in China

Posted on March 19, 2015 by Reggie Littlejohn

Reggie Littlejohn.

The 1995 Beijing Platform calls for an end to violence against women, including “Physical, sexual and psychological violence perpetrated by the State, wherever it occurs.” Paragraph 113(c). Forced abortion constitutes such violence, and yet in the 20 years since the Beijing Platform, forced abortion continues in China. In addition, Paragraph 277(c) calls governments and NGOs to “eliminate all forms of discrimination against the girl child . . . such as prenatal sex selection and female infanticide . . . ” and yet these practices are rampant in China and India.

At the 1995 Beijing Women’s Conference, former First Lady Hillary Clinton boldly proclaimed, “If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women’s rights – and women’s rights are human rights, once and for all.” Yet, no substantial progress has been made to eliminate forced abortion or gendercide since the Beijing Conference. Much work remains to be done and the elimination of forced abortion and gendercide should be front and center in all discussions regarding progress of women’s rights (or the lack thereof) in Beijing +20.

It is ironic that the UN is discussing the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action — focusing on gender equality and empowerment of women — while blatantly ignoring China’s own intentional, governmental subjugation of women and girls as expressed through the coercive enforcement of the One Child Policy. An event discussing forced abortion and gendercide in China should be held as one of the Plenary Sessions before all delegates, rather than relegated to various “Side” and “Parallel” events? Is this an indication that China is so powerful at the U.N. that even the UNCSW is willing to turn a blind eye to the biggest women’s rights violation on earth and in the history of the world?

China Will Not Abandon the One-Child Policy, Despite Reports

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has recently stated that China is considering a further reform

Reggie Littlejohn in front of UN

of the hated One Child Policy, giving rise to news reports with titles such as, “Is China Going to Abandon the One Child Policy?” My answer to that is an emphatic: No, China is not going to abandon the One Child Policy.

The Chinese government sees the two-fold demographic disaster caused by the One Child Policy. First, the policy has caused a dangerously skewed gender imbalance in which there are 37 million more men living in China today than women. Second, China does not have enough young people to support its quickly aging population.

In my opinion, the Chinese Communist Party will likely announce that soon, all couples can have a second child. But this will not be the end of the One Child Policy. Women will still need a birth permit for the first and the second child. Without this permit, they will still be subject to forced abortion. The core of the policy is not the number of children the Chinese government will allow women to have. The core of the policy is that the Chinese government is telling women how many children they can have, and enforcing that limit through forced abortion, forced sterilization, and forced contraception – the mandatory insertion of IUDs.

The One Child Policy does not need to be reformed. It needs to be abolished. Women’s Rights Without Frontiers demands that the Chinese government cease to interfere with each family’s decision on how many children they will have. We demand an end to government sponsored forced abortion, forced sterilization, forced contraception, pregnancy checks and tracking of women’s menstrual cycles. The entire, vast network of Family Planning Police must be dismissed.

The women of the world will be free only when the women of China are free.

“It’s a Girl” – The Deadliest Words in the World

For most of us, “it’s a girl” is cause for enormous joy, happiness and celebration. But in many countries, this phrase can be a death sentence. In fact, the words, “it’s a girl” are the deadliest words on earth when said at the birth of a child. According to one U.N. estimate, up to 200 million women are missing in the world today due to “gendercide,” the selective abortion, abandonment or deadly neglect of baby girls just because they are female.

On September 18, 2014, it was reported that a student at Linyi University had given birth in a university bathroom and had abandoned her newborn daughter in the toilet pipe.

In March 2015, the photo went viral of a father and daughter handcuffed together as they traveled together to visit family for the Chinese new year. The father sought to protect his daughter from child trafficking, because girls are in such short supply.

This is not a pro-choice or a pro-life issue. This is a human rights issue that must be approached as an area of common ground. No one supports the systematic elimination of women and girls.

Forced Abortion and Gendercide Are Not a Choice. They are the true “War against Women.” Forced abortion is not a choice. It is official government rape.
The Chinese Communist Party boasts that it has “prevented” 400 million lives through its brutal One Child Policy. That is a greater number than the entire population of the United States and Canada combined. Each one of these 400 million lives “prevented” is a victim of communism. This is the hallmark of communist regimes: the peace-time killing of their own citizens.
China Has Not ‘Eased’ Coercive Population Control Under it’s One Child Policy. These atrocities continue to this day.

To learn more about forced abortion in China, watch STOP FORCED ABORTION, CHINA’S WAR ON WOMEN http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/?nav=stop-forced-abortion

More often than not, gendercide is not a choice either. There is a strong correlation between sex-selective abortion and coercion. Crushing social, economic, political and personal pressures in cultures with a strong son preference trample women carrying girls. All too often, women in these cultures do not “select” their daughters for abortion. They are forced.

To learn more about sex-selective abortion in China and India, watch the trailer to the IT’S A GIRL documentary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISme5-9orR0

In China, the birth ratio of girls to boys is the most skewed in the world. The sex ratio at birth has risen from 108.5 in 1982 to almost 118 boys born for every 100 girls born in 2010. India is not far behind.
Sons traditionally carry on the family name, work the fields, and take care of their parents in old age. A daughter joins her husband’s family at marriage. There is a saying: “Raising a girl is like watering someone else’s garden.” The One Child Policy exacerbates the underlying son preference. When couples are restricted to one child, women often become the focus of intense pressure by their husband and in-laws to ensure a boy.
A woman need not be dragged out of her home and strapped down to a table to be a victim of forced abortion. Persistent emotional pressure, estrangement from the extended family, threat of abandonment or divorce, verbal abuse, and domestic violence often overpower women who otherwise would choose to keep their daughters.
Systematic, sex-selective abortion constitutes gendercide. Because of this gendercide, there are an estimated 37 million more men than women in China today. The presence of these “excess males” is the driving force behind human trafficking and sexual slavery, not only within China but from surrounding nations as well.
China has the highest female suicide rate of any country in the world. According to the 2013 U.S. State Department China Human Rights Report, the numbers of female suicides have risen sharply in the past several years, from 500 women per day to 590.
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. This is the true “War Against Women.”

UNCSW’s Agreed Conclusions Condemned Forced Abortion; They Need to Condemn Gendercide

The UNCSW’s topic for 2013 was “Elimination and Prevention of All Forms of Violence Against Women and Girls.”

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers was honored to make four presentations about forced abortion and gendercide in China at the UNCSW in 2013. We forcefully argued that there is no greater violence against women than forced abortion, up to the ninth month of pregnancy. Women themselves sometimes die as a result of these violent procedures. There is no greater violence against girls than gendercide, which has claimed up to 200 million lives of girls selected for abortion solely because they are girls.

We achieved a partial victory and commend the following language from 2013’s “Agreed Conclusions”:

34. The Commission urges government, at all levels, and as appropriate, with the relevant entities of the United Nations system, international and regional organizations . . . to take the following actions:
. . . .
(aaa) Condemn and take action to prevent violence against women and girls in health-care settings, including . . . forced medical procedures, or those conducted without informed consent, and which may be irreversible, such as forced hysterectomy, forced caesarean section, forced sterilization, forced abortion, and forced use of contraceptives . . .

These Agreed Conclusions represent an acknowledgement that forced medical procedures are a form of violence against women and call for an international condemnation of such procedures.

While the Agreed Conclusions condemn coercive family planning in the form of forced medical procedures, they take no stand on gendercide, the sex-selective abortion, abandonment and fatal neglect of baby girls. If the UNCSW stands for women’s rights, it must take a stand against the selective abortion of up to 200 million baby girls. We call upon them to do so in the Agreed Conclusions for 2015.

WRWF Calls for an Investigation of UNFPA

The UNCSW, moreover, should follow its own advice to “condemn and take action to prevent violence against women . . .” by thoroughly investigating the activities of the UNFPA in China. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell found the UNFPA to be complicit with coercive family planning in China. WRWF believes that any independent investigation of the UNFPA’s current practices would arrive at the same conclusion.

Forced Abortion in China Is Linked to Breast Cancer in Women and Low Birth Weight, Increased Chance of Death in Subsequent Pregnancies.

TIANJIN, CHINA. A medical study from China has revealed an additional way in which women are victimized by the One-Child Policy: significantly increased risk of breast cancer.
Researchers in China have found that the dramatic rise in breast cancer in China is associated with the prevalence of induced abortions (IA) under the One-Child Policy. The study, conducted by a team of epidemiologists from Tianjin Medical University Cancer Hospital, analyzed data from over 36 different studies in both the United States and China.

Their conclusion:
“IA [is] significantly associated with an increased risk of breast cancer among Chinese females, and the risk of breast cancer increases as the number of IA increases.” Specifically, the study found that one IA increases a woman’s risk of breast cancer by 44 percent, two by 76 percent, and three by 89 percent.

The study notes that historically, China has had low breast cancer rates when compared with Western nations, but “the incidence of breast cancer in China ha[s] increased at an alarming rate over the past two decades.” The study notes that this rise “was paralleled to the one-child-per-family policy.”

In our view, the strong association of abortion and breast cancer established by this study brings the women’s rights violations under the One Child Policy to a new level: a woman pregnant in China without a birth permit is subjected to both government imposed forced abortion, and also breast cancer as a result of it. Where abortion is forced, the subsequent development of breast cancer becomes a violation of women’s rights in itself. “China: One-Child Policy Linked to Breast Cancer – Study.” http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/blog/?p=1428. 12/2/13

Forced Abortion in China Correlates with Low Birth Weight, Increased Chance of Death in Subsequent Pregnancies

A dissertation submitted to the University of Hong Kong found that children in China are more likely to face serious health complications, including death, if their mothers have had multiple induced abortions. The study concluded that having more than one abortion increases the risk of low birth weight in subsequent pregnancies. Indeed, women who have had three or more induced abortions are at five times the risk of preterm birth in a subsequent pregnancy.
The study, conducted by Cui Limin, explained that nearly two thirds of neonatal deaths are related to low birth weight. For children surviving infancy, LBW increases the risk of neuron-developmental problems, respiratory tract infections, and behavioral problems. According to the study, those with very LBW suffer from conditions including cerebral palsy, blindness, impaired hearing and learning disabilities. Besides harming the child, these health problems put extra financial strain on parents, the study noted.
Women in China are forced into induced-labor abortions, up to the ninth month of pregnancy. In our view, this is a violation of women’s rights of the first degree. We are now learning that these forced abortions also put their future children at risk for respiratory complications, cerebral palsy, and even death related to low birth weight. They also may damage a woman’s future reproductive and general health. This is a violation of the women’s rights and the rights of their future children. Forced abortion must be stopped, and families should be compensated if their children experience health problems caused by previous induced labor forced abortions.
According to the study, 14.37 million induced abortions were performed in 2012 – one quarter of the abortions in the world — many of which were repeat abortions. The study credited the One-Child Policy as “one of the most important factors for the increased induced abortion rate,” and cited the prevalence of forced and sex-selective abortions in China.”
There Is Hope: Our “Save a Girl” Campaign
Fortunately, there is hope. Women’s Rights Without Frontiers has launched the “Save a

This baby girl from rural China was saved from abandonment by WRWF’s “Save a Girl” Campaign.

Girl” Campaign in rural China, and we are stopping gendercide, one baby girl at a time. We have field workers in China who reach out to women who have had an ultrasound, learned that they are pregnant with a girl, and are planning to abort or abandon her. A field worker will visit that woman and say, “Don’t abort your baby just because she’s a girl. She’s a precious daughter. We will give you a monthly stipend for a year, to help you support her.” The practical support we offer empowers these women to keep their daughters.
We are also living the mission every day, around our own kitchen table. With the help of Cong. Chris Smith, Jing Zhang, Hu Jia and other brave souls in the United States and China, we were able to obtain safe passage from China to the United States for Anni and Ruli Zhang, the daughters of veteran pro-democracy activist Zhang Lin, who is currently serving a 3.5 year jail sentence for standing up for 10-year-old Anni’s right to go to school. My husband Robert and I have taken Anni and Ruli into our family and are raising them as our own daughters.

Every struggling mother in China and India deserves help to keep her daughter. Together, we can end forced abortion and gendercide and sweep these atrocities against women into the dung-heap of history, where they belong.

Learn more about the “Save a Girl” campaign:
http://womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=end-gendercide-and-forced-abortion

WRWF thanks the Permanent Mission of Sierra Leone to the UN, as well as the NGOs co-sponsoring the UNCSW events at which she is speaking: Endeavour Forum, Family Research Council, C-Fam, Eagle Forum and the Population Research Institute.