Cong. Chris Smith, Chen Guangcheng and Reggie Littlejohn Unite to Fight Forced Abortion and Gendercide in China – Heritage and WRWF Event

Posted on October 17, 2014 by Reggie Littlejohn
Congressman Chris Smith, Chen Guangcheng and Reggie Littlejohn after speaking at The Heritage Foundation, October 9, 2014. Photo credit: Karen Cross

Congressman Chris Smith, Chen Guangcheng and Reggie Littlejohn after speaking at The Heritage Foundation, October 9, 2014. Photo credit: Karen Cross

WASHINGTON, D.C.  In commemoration of the International Day of the Girl Child, The Heritage Foundation partnered with Women’s Rights Without Frontiers in co-hosting a powerful event to expose the truth of China’s One Child Policy. Representative Chris Smith, blind activist Chen Guangcheng, and Women’s Rights Without Frontiers President Reggie Littlejohn joined forces to expose the atrocities of forced abortion and gendercide in China.

Reggie Littlejohn speaks at The Heritage Foundation, October 9, 2014. Photo credit: Penny Starr, CNS News

Reggie Littlejohn speaks at The Heritage Foundation, October 9, 2014. Photo credit: Penny Starr, CNS News

Littlejohn shared harrowing statistics: the Chinese Communist Party boasts that it has “prevented” 400 million lives through its brutal One-Child Policy, a number greater than the entire population of the United States and Canada combined. Littlejohn stated, “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.” Littlejohn drew the connection between forced abortion and gendercide, explaining that son-preference combined with low birth rate requirements have resulted in the sex-selective abortion of girls leading to a rise in sex-trafficking, the highest female suicide rate in the world, increased incidence in breast cancer, and a growing “senior tsunami” with no young population to sustain it. In Littlejohn’s words, “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 on Women.’”

Littlejohn concluded on a note of hope, informing the audience of how they could make a difference – one daughter, one family at a time, through Women’s Rights Without Frontier’s“Save A Girl” campaign.

Congressman Chris Smith speaks at The Heritage Foundation, October 9, 2014. Photo credit: Penny Starr, CNS News

Congressman Chris Smith speaks at The Heritage Foundation, October 9, 2014. Photo credit: Penny Starr, CNS News

Seventeen-term Congressman Smith keynoted the event, stating that “forced abortion is state-sponsored violence against women and children.” He explained that women in China are “mocked, belittled, humiliated and exploited” to the extent to which a mother “cannot protect her unborn baby nor herself” at the violent hands of a repressive government, which seeks to control its people through a system of birth permits and forced abortions. Congressman Smith has been a tireless proponent of Chinese human rights issues, chairing more than 50 Congressional hearings on the matter.  Four of these were dedicated to the plight of Chen Guangcheng when he was detained, under house arrest, or languishing in a hospital in Beijing after his dramatic escape. Of Chen – the blind, self-taught lawyer who bravely exposed the more than 100,000 forced abortions and sterilizations in his hometown of Linyi – Congressman

Smith said “I know of no other person on earth who has personally suffered so much for attempting to stop this cruelty to women.” Indeed, Chen and his extended family have paid the price of intimidation, detention, torture and terror.

Chen Guangcheng speaks at The Heritage Foundation, October 9, 2014. Photo credit: Penny Starr, CNS News

Chen Guangcheng speaks at The Heritage Foundation, October 9, 2014. Photo credit: Penny Starr, CNS News

Chen received a hero’s welcome by the audience.  He stated that the One Child Policy “has demoralized Chinese society, changing it from a society that highly values life to a social decay where society looks down on and has contempt for the individual lives of human beings.” Chen related the account of one couple from a neighboring village.  The wife was found to be pregnant without a birth permit. Because the pregnancy was “illegal,” the couple was forced to abort, but they resisted when authorities came to drag the wife to the clinic. The husband and wife were thrust onto a truck.  The husband was taken off the truck and beaten on the ground. After the wife’s pregnancy was aborted against her will, the couple was in agony with no one to help them. Other couples, too frightened to stay in their homes, flee to sleep in the fields, in an effort to keep the children they so desperately want. Chen likened the environment to a “war zone,” and insisted that “everyone needs to know that the Communist Party does not represent China and especially not the Chinese people.”  Rather, “they have become a public enemy of the Chinese people.”  Chen concluded by explaining that in China they have a saying: “Your home is your castle, and even a king will not be allowed to come in without the owner’s permission.  But now 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.” Chen concluded:  “In such a situation, we, people of conscience, must stand up with the Chinese people to end the Communist rule in China.”

 Director of the Asia Study Center Walter Lohman moderated.  Participants included State Department staff, Capitol Hill staff, numerous media outlets, several human rights organizations, and college students, as well as concerned citizens.

 View a video of the full event: http://www.heritage.org/events/2014/10/one-child-policy

 Learn more about the “Save a Girl” Campaign to save girls from gendercide in China: http://womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=end-gendercide-and-forced-abortion

Posted in Chen Guangcheng, Chris Smith, Forced Abortion, forced sterilization, Heritage Foundation, human dignity, Human Rights, International Day of the Girl Child, One Child Policy, pro-choice, pro-life, Reggie Littlejohn, reproductive health, reproductive rights, Save a Girl, Uncategorized, war on women, women's rights, Women's Rights Without Frontiers | Comments Off on Cong. Chris Smith, Chen Guangcheng and Reggie Littlejohn Unite to Fight Forced Abortion and Gendercide in China – Heritage and WRWF Event

Heritage: Rep. Chris Smith, Reggie Littlejohn and Chen Guangcheng to speak in DC on October 9

Posted on October 8, 2014 by Reggie Littlejohn
Reggie Littlejohn with Chen Guangcheng in DC, 2013

Reggie Littlejohn and Chen Guangcheng at an event in DC, 2013

Heritage Logo WRWF Logo

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers is thrilled to announce that it will partner with the acclaimed research think tank The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. in an event commemorating the International Day of the Girl Child.  The October 9 event will center on the terrible truths of China’s One Child Policy and feature a discussion on valuing women and girls in the 21st century.

 Congressman Chris Smith, a passionate and effective advocate for human rights in China, will provide the keynote address, followed by commentary by WRWF Founder and President Reggie Littlejohn and celebrated blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng.  Director of Heritage’s Asia Study Center, Walter Lohman, will moderate their remarks.

Chris Smith and Reggie Sunglasses copy

Rep. Chris Smith joins WRWF’s Sunglasses Campaign to free Chen Guangcheng

 Beginning in 2008, Littlejohn advocated tirelessly in Europe and the United States to free Chen. Littlejohn stated, “I was humbled to testify at several Congressional hearings chaired by Rep. Smith concerning the terrible persecution of Chen Guangcheng, advocating passionately that the Chinese government release him and the U.S. government take him in.  The day that Chen Guangcheng and his family set foot on U.S. soil was the most exciting day of my life.  Speaking with Rep. Smith and Chen Guangcheng at Heritage is an extraordinary opportunity I never thought possible during the long years when Chen’s freedom seemed inconceivable.”

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. The Chinese Community Party boasts that it has “prevented” 400 million births through the One Child Policy. The policy is still ruthlessly enforced through forced abortion and sterilization. Cultural preference for boys has promoted the sex-selective abortions of baby girls.  This gendercide has caused a staggering gender imbalance in which there are 37 million more men than women living in China today.  This gender imbalance is in turn driving sex-trafficking, a black market for children, and social unrest. The coercive enforcement of China’s One Child Policy is the biggest women’s rights issue – indeed, the biggest human rights issue – in the world today, affecting 1.2 billion people, one fifth of the population of the earth.

Reggie Littlejohn testifies for the release of Chen Guangcheng and his family, at a Congressional Hearing chaired by Rep. Chris Smith; May 3, 2012

Reggie Littlejohn testifies for the release of Chen Guangcheng and his family, at a Congressional Hearing chaired by Rep. Chris Smith; May 3, 2012

Mr. Chen currently serves as Distinguished Senior Fellow in Human Rights at the William E. and Carol G. Simon Center on Religion and the Constitutionof The Witherspoon Institute. He is also a member of the faculty of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at the Catholic University of America and Senior Distinguished Advisor to the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice.

 The presentation will be from noon to 1:00 p.m. at The Heritage Foundation’s office at 214 Massachusetts Avenue NE, Washington, DC 20002.  RSVPs, while not required, are encouraged.

RSVP online http://www.heritage.org/events/2014/10/one-child-policy

RSVP by telephone: (202) 675-1752

Terms and conditions of attendance are posted at: www.heritage.org/Events/terms 

All events may be viewed live at heritage.org

Posted in Chen Guangcheng, China, China's One Child Policy, coerced abortion, Forced Abortion, forced sterilization, gendercide, Human Rights, One Child Policy, Reggie Littlejohn, Uncategorized, Women's Rights Without Frontiers | Comments Off on Heritage: Rep. Chris Smith, Reggie Littlejohn and Chen Guangcheng to speak in DC on October 9

Daughters of Zhang Lin — WRWF Celebrates One Year in the U.S.

Posted on September 29, 2014 by Reggie Littlejohn
Reggie Littlejohn, president of Women's Rights Without Frontiers, with adopted daughters Anni and Ruli. (Photo Credit: Women's Rights Without Frontiers)

Reggie Littlejohn, president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, with the daughters of Zhang Lin, Anni and Ruli .  Littlejohn and her husband have taken the sisters into their own family.  (Photo Credit: Women’s Rights Without Frontiers)

A year ago this month, Anni and Ruli Zhang arrived in the United States.  Ten year old Anni had to leave China because she had been detained and then denied the right to go to school.  She is known as “China’s youngest prisoner of conscience.”  Her venerated activist father is still in jail for having helped her.  With the help of many brave people in China and the United States, Anni and Ruli obtained safe passage to the United States.  My husband, Robert, and I are overjoyed to welcome them into our family.  Here is a beautiful profile of our family, published by LifeSiteNews.  WRWF’s “Save a Girl” campaign is not only saving girls in China, but also around our own kitchen table.  I would again like to thank the brave people in China — four of whom remain in detention to this day — as well as Jing Zhang of Women’s Rights in China and Rep. Chris Smith for all they did to help Anni and Lily come safely to the United States.

She prayed for years for a Chinese daughter — Now she’s raising China’s youngest political prisoner

By Kirsten Anderson

(LifeSiteNews.com) – A U.S.-based human rights activist is raising China’s youngest known political prisoner and her sister after the girls fled their native country, where their famous father is still imprisoned.

Reggie Littlejohn, founder of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, which fights gendercide and forced abortion in Asia, recently told LifeSiteNews the dramatic story of the events that led to her adoption of the girls, in a video interview with Managing Director Steve Jalsevac in Washington, DC.

Littlejohn said that Anni Zhang, 11, and her elder sister Ruli, 19, left China in September after their father, political dissident and nuclear physicist Zhang Lin, was once again imprisoned for speaking out against the Communist government.  He had already spent 13 years behind bars for his involvement in the Tiananmen Square [pro-democracy movement] of 1989, and for publishing comments critical of the Chinese government online.

Zhang’s most recent imprisonment came after Anni – then ten years old – was kidnapped from her school by the authorities and detained overnight without food, water, a toilet, or even a blanket.  After she was returned to her father, she was told that she would not be allowed to attend school anymore because of her father’s pro-democracy activism.

Undaunted, her father led protests against the school and the Communist Party, demanding they give his daughter an education.  But during the protests, they were both detained by police and subsequently placed on house arrest.  They were able to escape last summer, but Chinese authorities caught up to them in July and once again arrested them.  When Zhang realized he would be returning to prison, he reached out to the international activist community for help.  He wanted to get Anni out of the country, as it was clear she would never be able to live a normal life in China.

Zhang is “terribly courageous,” Littlejohn told LifeSiteNews.  “He has been tortured horribly in jail.  For example, his older daughter Ruli has said that what the Chinese Communist Party will do is, they will put him in a cell with people with highly infectious fatal diseases, and murderers, and … they’ll tell the murderers, ‘Do whatever you want,’ and he has been beaten within an inch of his life.”

Littlejohn said the injuries Zhang has suffered in prison are so severe that since Anni was about eight years old, she was the one taking care of her father – cooking, cleaning and doing the household shopping.  (Anni’s mother divorced Zhang and left the family in 2011.)

According to Littlejohn, the government’s treatment of little Anni – detaining her, placing her under house arrest, and denying her an education – are “typical” tactics the Communist Party uses to try to silence dissidents.

“They did their best to silence Zhang Lin through incarceration and torture and denial of medical treatment, [but] they could not silence him,” Littlejohn said.  “So then they go after his kids.”

Littlejohn first met the Zhang family in 2013 during the protests at Anni’s school.  Anni and her father were interviewed for Boxun Radio at the same time as Littlejohn was being interviewed via satellite link.  During the broadcast, Littlejohn said, “Zhang Lin gave a fiery speech, Anni gave a fiery speech, I gave a fiery speech, and at the end of it, the interviewer said, ‘Would you and Anni like to speak to each other?  You’re a women’s rights activist in the United States; she’s an up-and-coming women’s rights activist in China; so of course we said yes.”

(Photo Credit: Women's Rights Without Frontiers)

Anni and Ruli Zhang in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, 2013 (Photo Credit: Women’s Rights Without Frontiers)

“I was able to say to her, ‘Anni, I am so impressed with you.  I’m impressed with your courage, I’m impressed with your intelligence, with your articulateness, with your poise; you know, that at ten years old you have the wherewithal to stand up to the Chinese Communist Party.  If you would remain true, if you can remain humble, if you could remain pure, you can help lead your people to freedom.’”

“That was our first conversation,” Littlejohn said.  “Our first conversation was over national radio.”  At the time, Littlejohn had no idea that Anni would soon be living in her home, being raised as her daughter.

It was in August that Zhang Lin was able to get a message out to Littlejohn saying he wanted Anni to go to the United States.  He asked Littlejohn to find a safe place for the little girl to live, where she could get an education and live a normal life, away from the constant surveillance and threats of the Communist Party.  Otherwise, he worried Anni might end up in a state-run orphanage.

Little did Zhang know that his request was an answer to ten years of Littlejohn’s prayers – her work with Chinese girls had given her a strong desire to parent one, but she knew that the Chinese government would never approve her request for adoption because of her human rights activism.

Littlejohn has devoted her life to fighting for women and girls in Asia. As a lawyer in the early 1990s, she represented a client who sought asylum in the United States after undergoing a forced sterilization in China.  Littlejohn was so shocked to learn about the widespread human rights violations targeting Asian women that she founded Women’s Rights Without Frontiers.

“I [asked Zhang], ‘Well, where is she going to go?’ and [Zhang said] ‘We don’t know.’  So I said, ‘Let me call my husband,’” Littlejohn recalled.

“My husband is the most awesome man in the world,” she added.  “It was just a phone call.  I didn’t even have to sit him down on the couch and say, ‘Honey, there’s a girl in China,’ you know, I just said, ‘Rob, remember Anni?  She needs to come to the United States; she needs a place to stay,’ and there was, like, this pause, and he said … ‘Is this the daughter from China that you’ve wanted for so many years, for ten years?’ And I said, ‘I think so.’”

Littlejohn and her husband agreed to take the little girl in, so activists in China went to work smuggling the girl and her sister out of the country.

“It was a long process to get [Anni] out of China and into the United States,” Littlejohn said.  “There are four people currently detained in China because they helped Anni [escape]. Four people are in jail right now because they helped Anni.  So the Chinese Communist Party let her go, but they made sure it was very, very costly.”

It was only after the girls’ arrival in the U.S. that Littlejohn learned that Anni – as the second child fathered by Zhang Lin – was almost a victim of China’s One-Child Policy – the same policy she has dedicated her life to destroying.

(Photo Credit: Women's Rights Without Frontiers)

(Photo Credit: Women’s Rights Without Frontiers)

“The family planning police had come after [Anni’s] mother and had been pressuring her mother to abort her, to the extent that her mother was almost going crazy with the constant, constant, constant pressure,” Littlejohn said.  “Her mother had to hide. Zhang Lin was able to finally get permission for Anni to be born, but Anni could have been one of the 400 million lives that have been prevented by the One-Child Policy … as far as I’m concerned, every one of those lives that was prevented could have been Anni, could have been my own daughter.”

Since the girls’ arrival in the U.S., they have been focused on learning English and acclimating to their new lives.  Anni has taken a liking to hamburgers, and enjoys playing the piano.  Meanwhile, Ruli has started to speak out more about the human rights violations her family has endured, penning an open letter to world leaders on the recent 25th anniversary of Tiananmen Square in which she slammed the Chinese government for “doing their utmost to persecute people, even reaching their evil claws to a ten-year-old child,” and divulging more details about the abuse their father endured at the hands of the Communist Party.

It is Littlejohn’s hope that Anni will someday follow in both her families’ footsteps.

“Anni has the personality … of a leader,” Littlejohn told LifeSiteNews.  “She is very charismatic, [and has a] very strong personality. … [She is] smart like her father and a survivor of the One-Child Policy, and someday I would love to see her take over the reins of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers.”

View original article at LifeSiteNews.com: http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/she-prayed-for-years-for-a-chinese-daughter-now-shes-raising-chinas-younges

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

 

Posted in Reggie Littlejohn, Uncategorized, Zhang Anni, Zhang Lin, Zhang Ruli | Comments Off on Daughters of Zhang Lin — WRWF Celebrates One Year in the U.S.

Thank you Sen. Marco Rubio for Addressing the Disastrous Consequences of China’s One Child Policy

Posted on September 26, 2014 by Reggie Littlejohn

We at Women’s Rights Without Frontiers are grateful to Sen. Marco Rubio for writing this powerful and courageous piece exposing the incalculable suffering caused by China’s One Child Policy and have reprinted his remarks below.

Addressing the Disastrous Consequencs of China’s One-Child Policy

By Sen. Marco Rubio

Thirty four years ago today, the communist regime in China enacted its “One-Child Policy,” one of the most disastrous and immoral social policies ever imagined in human history. It was the communist regime’s answer to curb the growth of the world’s largest population.

The One-Child Policy banned most Chinese couples from having more than one child. When couples conceived a second child, the Chinese government forced them to eliminate him or her, by any means necessary. However, because of cultural norms that place a premium on boys, the policy’s victims also included first-conceived children simply because they happened to be girls. In addition, Chinese women who gave birth to baby girls were also victims of this policy because many ended up being shunned by their husbands, families and society.

For over three decades, China’s One-Child Policy has condemned approximately 37 million Chinese girls – who the policy helped deem unwanted or “surplus” – to abortion, infanticide, abandonment and human trafficking. In recent years, the Chinese government has relaxed this disastrous policy and ironically, China now faces demographic decline in the coming decades, in part due to the One-Child Policy. However, innocent Chinese parents are still forced to endure abortions and sterilizations in the parts of the country that are still subject to it.

There have also been additional long-term consequences of China’s One-Child Policy that we see today, including one that I am actively trying to address through legislation I’ve introduced called the Girls Count Act.

According to UNICEF, an estimated 290 million children under the age of 5 do not possess a birth certificate. As we know, proof of birth determines a child’s citizenship, nationality, place of birth, parentage and age, which are critical to ensuring children remain a part of society and do not fall victim to dangers such as exploitation.

While China’s One-Child Policy is not the sole driver of this problem, it has contributed to it. As The Economist reported earlier this year, today there are about 13 million Chinese who lack household registration certificates because they were born in violation of the One-Child Policy. Not having this certificate means they can’t go to school, get a job, get married or do something as simple as check out library books. They have no access to China’s already flawed legal system. They can’t even escape this misery by buying plane or train tickets so they can relocate. Over time, failing to register children at birth leaves them vulnerable to human trafficking and exploitation.

The Girls Count Act I’ve introduced would help address this problem. It would direct current U.S. foreign assistance to provide assistance to support the rights of women and girls in developing countries by working to establish birth registries in their countries.

A nationally recognized proof of birth system is critical to establishing key documentation for a child, which ultimately ensures that child can go on to fully participate and contribute to society. The Girls Count Act will help pave the way for millions – especially young girls and women who have been disproportionately affected – to benefit from new opportunities previously denied to them.

This is but one way we can address the consequences of China’s disastrous One-Child Policy and fully address the long-term havoc it has wreaked on the Chinese people. However, more must be done. The U.S. must continue to advocate for the complete elimination of the One-Child policy and the rights of all Chinese citizens, including the unborn, to live up to their God-given potential.

Read original article at townhall.com: http://townhall.com/columnists/marcorubio/2014/09/25/addressing-the-disastrous-consequences-of-chinas-onechild-policy-n1896256/page/full

Visit Senator Rubio’s Website: http://www.rubio.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/home

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Thank you Sen. Marco Rubio for Addressing the Disastrous Consequences of China’s One Child Policy

34th Anniversary of China’s Barbaric One Child Policy Today: Open Letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping

Posted on September 25, 2014 by Reggie Littlejohn

September 25, 2014

Re:  Open Letter to President Xi Jinping, 34th Anniversay of China’s One Child Policy

To President Xi Jinping:

Today is the 34th anniversary of the official institution of China’s barbaric One Child Policy, which has caused incalculable suffering to hundreds of millions of women and families of China. It is time for this policy to end.  It will not work to replace it by a ‘two-child policy’ as some of your advisors may be suggesting.  Rather, the One Child Policy should be eradicated from the face of the earth, because it has caused more violence toward women and girls than any other official policy on earth, and any other official policy in the history of the world.  Your government has boasted that it has “prevented” more than 400 million births through this policy.  These births have been prevented through forced abortions, involuntary sterilizations, confiscatory “terror fines,” gendercide and infanticide – all in violation of international human rights law.

The One Child Policy causes more violence against women and girls than any other official policy on earth.

The One Child Policy is China’s war on women.   Any discussion of women’s rights, or human rights, would be a charade if forced abortion in China is not front and center.  It does not matter whether you are pro-life or pro-choice on this issue.  No one supports forced abortion, because it is not a choice.  Here is a video in which former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, strongly condemns coercive family planning in China.  http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=hillary_clinton

In the past year there has been much suffering caused by the One Child Policy.  We are aware that the cases that make it to the West are just the proverbial tip of the iceberg.  For every family that posts their experience of heartbreak on the internet – and thereby risks persecution by the Chinese Communist Party — there are thousands or millions who suffer silently.   This year, we have seen a tragic rise in murder and suicide associated with the crushing “social compensation fees,” which can cost up to fourteen times a person’s annual salary, an amount the vast majority of Chinese citizens cannot afford.  If the parents are unable to pay these “terror fines,” their children will be denied “hukou,” or household registration.  Without hukou, children are ineligible for healthcare or education.  They become illegal aliens in their own land. “Chinese Mother, fined $54,200 for Flouting One-child Policy, Sues Police.” http://www.voanews.com/content/reu-chinese-mother-fined-54200-one-child-policy-sues/1803992.html 12/5/13

  • In Linyi City, Shandong Province – the hometown of blind activist Chen Guangcheng – a student at Linyi University gave birth to a baby girl in a University lavatory, left her baby stuffed down the toilet pipe, and fled the scene.  A reported comment on social media site Weibo stated, “I find the image of a young woman giving birth in the loo, cleaning herself up and then going back to her room to carry on studying a particularly worrying one and a sign of the sort of throwaway society that we live in nowadays.”  “Chinese baby girl abandoned in university lavatory by her mother is rescued.” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11105358/Chinese-baby-girl-abandoned-in-university-lavatory-by-her-mother-is-rescued.html
  • In China’s Guangxi Region, a man stabbed to death two government workers after they told him he could not register his fourth child because he did not pay the “social compensation fee.”  He injured four other workers, including severing the hand of one. “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.  (Although this incident happened before August 1, 2013, it happened so close to the deadline that it was not included in our 2013 report, so we have included it here.)
  • 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.  “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
  • In Shandong Province, Liu Xinwen was dragged out of her home in the middle of the night by 20 officials, who kicked down her door and restrained her husband.  They forcibly aborted her, six months pregnant.  “China Couple Speak of ‘Forced Abortion.’”  http://news.sky.com/story/1150016/china-couple-speak-of-forced-abortion 10/4/13
  • Ai Guangdong, a farmer in Hebei Province, killed himself by drinking pesticide during a dispute with family planning officials over fines for his over-quota children.  Since the farmer did not have money to pay the fines, family planning officials confiscated 3.5 tons of corn, the entire savings of the family.  Ai Guangdong then visited the home of the Party Chief to dispute this action.  Finally the farmer drank pesticide at the home of the Party Chief, and promptly died.  “Farmer drinks poison after being fined for violations of family planning policy.”  http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/830847.shtml 12/8/13
  • In Xinjiang Province, four Uyghur women were forcibly aborted, one of them at nine months.  As ethnic minorities, Uyghurs are supposedly exempt from the One Child Policy.  This is not the case. While they may have more than one child, they are nevertheless subject to coercive termination of out-of-plan pregnancies.  “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
  • 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.  It has been estimated that 70,000 children a year are trafficked in China.  The doctor sold boys at a premium, costing more than twice as much as girls.  “Obstetrician convicted in Chinese baby-trafficking case.”  http://www.wnd.com/2014/01/obstetrician-convicted-in-chinese-baby-trafficking-case/ 1/16/14; “Chinese doctor sentenced to death for selling babies.”  http://nypost.com/2014/01/14/chinese-doctor-sentenced-to-death-for-selling-babies/ 1/14/14
  • In Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, authorities stopped accepting new babies at a “baby hatch,” where parents can anonymously leave their unwanted children in an incubator.  Parents overwhelmed the center by leaving 262 babies, many suffering from serious illnesses.  China reportedly has 25 baby hatches in 10 provinces.  “Chinese Baby Hatch Suspended After Parents Abandon Overwhelming Number of Children.”  http://www.christianpost.com/news/chinese-baby-hatch-suspended-after-parents-abandon-overwhelming-number-of-children-116271/ 3/17/14
  • Chinese authorities shut down an internet website where parents could “give” their children to adoptive parents directly in return for a “gratitude fee.”  The authorities charged that the site operated without regulation or an intermediary and was connected to trafficking infants.  “Chinese parents, trapped in one-child web, give babies away on Internet.”  http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/30/us-china-adoptions-idUSBREA2T0L920140330 3/30/14.
  • In Guizhou Province, a farmer and father of four committed suicide because he could not afford to pay the fines to enroll his children in school.  His wife stated, “He said to me before he cut his wrists, ‘What did we bring them into the world for, to be as dumb as cattle?  I cannot see my children grow up uneducated.’” After his death, the authorities provided the family with a new house and money to educate the children. “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

The One Child Policy Is the Driving Force Behind Gendercide in China; It Cannot Be Cured By Instituting a Two-Child Policy

According to one U.N. estimate, there are up to 200 million women missing in the world today due to sex selective abortion.  Like these twins saved by our “Save a Girl” Campaign, millions of baby girls all over China are at risk of abortion or abandonment, simply because they are girls.  “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

In China, there are currently 117-118 boys born for every 100 girls born – the worst gender ratio in the world.  Nor will the tweaking of the One Child Policy have a significant impact on gendercide.  “Will the end of China’s One-Child Policy Shift its Boy-Girl Ratio?”  http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/11/15/will-the-end-of-chinas-one-child-policy-shift-its-boy-girl-ratio/.  11/15/13; “One-Child Policy is One Big Problem for China.” http://www.newsweek.com/2014/01/24/one-child-policy-one-big-problem-china-245118.html.  1/24/14; “China’s Revised One Child Policy Still Enables Discrimination Against Girls.” http://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1394011/chinas-revised-one-child-policy-still-enables-discrimination.  12/31/13

This astonishing gender imbalance can only be achieved through gendercide, the sex-selective abortion of baby girls.  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 2005 national census data, in nine Chinese 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.”  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.

This message was at the core of my presentation at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in March, 2014.  “China 1-Child Policy Warning Taken to U.N.” http://www.wnd.com/2014/03/china-1-child-policy-warning-taken-to-u-n/.  3/22/14;

China Has Not ‘Eased’ Coercive Population Control Under it’s One Child Policy

As you know, these atrocities continue to this day.

Under the misleading headline, “China to Ease One-Child Policy,” Xinhua News Agency reported that China will now lift the ban on a second child, if either parent is an only child. It is already the case that couples can have a second child if both parents are themselves only children.  This minor adjustment will not “ease” the One Child Policy.  It will merely tweak 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.”    “Birth policy changes are no big deal.”   http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/indepth/2013-11/16/c_132893477.htm.  11/16/13.

The minor modification of the policy that took place on January 1, 2014: 1) will not affect a large percentage of couples in China; 2) is not subject to a timetable in which to implement it; 3) retains the dreaded “birth intervals” between children (if a woman gets pregnant before the interval has lapsed, she may be subject to forced abortion); 4) makes no promise to end the coercive enforcement of the Policy; and 5) promises to continue the One Child Policy “over a long period of time” – which could be decades.

To say that China has “relaxed” or “eased” its One Child Policy under these circumstances is entirely unwarranted.  “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.

 China’s One Child Policy Causes Sexual Slavery; China’s 2014 Promotion in the State Department’s TIP Report Is Baseless and Unwarranted.

In 2013, the State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons or TIP Report downgraded China to a Tier 3 nation – a status it shared with Iran, Sudan and North Korea. Tier 3 nations may be subject to sanctions, if approved by the U.S. President.  http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2013/

The 2013 TIP Report discussed how China’s One Child Policy, combined with son preference, has caused a gender imbalance that is driving human trafficking and sexual slavery, not only within China but from the surrounding countries as well. The Report lists the many nations from which women and girls are trafficked into China: “Women and children from neighboring Asian countries, including Burma, Vietnam, Laos, Singapore, Mongolia, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), as well as from Russia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas, are reportedly trafficked to China for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor.”

The 2013 TIP Report found that, despite the prevalence of human trafficking and sexual slavery, the Chinese government’s efforts at prevention fell below minimum standards. In fact, the Report found that many state-run institutions were complicit in the trafficking: “ . . . The Chinese government did not demonstrate significant efforts to comprehensively prohibit and punish all forms of trafficking and to prosecute traffickers. The government continued to perpetuate human trafficking in at least 320 state-run institutions, while helping victims of human trafficking in only seven.”

The 2013 TIP Report further criticized the Chinese government for failing to “address the effects its birth limitation policy had in creating a gender imbalance and fuelingtrafficking, particularly through bride trafficking and forced marriage.”

The 2014 TIP Report has promoted China from a ‘Tier 3’ to a ‘Tier 2 Watch List’ nation.  The report appears to attribute this promotion to a technical modification of the One Child Policy:

The PRC 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.

The fact that the PRC government tweaked the One Child 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.  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.  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.  What about all the women and girls who are being trafficked now?  The TIP Report does not cite any effective new initiatives by the CCP to help current victims of sexual slavery.  “Trafficking and Sexual Slavery – China’s Promotion in State Dept. Report Unwarranted.”  http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/blog/?p=1730  7/28/14

Women from surrounding countries are often victims of deception, promised a better life with a good job, and then forced into sexual slavery. “China’s one-child policy creates market for Cambodian brides.”   http://www.ucanews.com/news/chinas-one-child-policy-creates-market-for-cambodian-brides/70749  4/22/14

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  2012 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.[1] 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.”

The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women’s “Agreed Conclusions” for 2013 Condemn Coercive Family Planning

 World opinion stands against China’s coercive family planning.  The UNCSW’s topic for 2013 was “Elimination and Prevention of All Forms of Violence Against Women and Girls.”  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.

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers made four presentations about forced abortion and gendercide in China at the UNCSW in March of last year.   We commend the following language from 2013’s “Agreed Conclusions”:

  1. 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 . . .[2]

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.  WRWF feels that the voices of hundreds of millions of suffering Chinese women and girls were heard by the UNCSW, and for this we are grateful.

The Chinese government, moreover, is the major perpetrator in the world of  “forced medical procedures” of the kind set forth in the UNCSW Agreed Conclusions.  The UNCSW should put teeth into its Agreed Conclusions by presenting this Complaint to the Chinese government and requiring a response.

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.

The UNCSW would not be the first to undertake such an investigation.  In a striking blow against China’s One Child Policy, the European Parliament passed a resolution strongly condemning forced abortion and involuntary sterilization in China and globally, citing Feng Jianmei, who was forcibly aborted at seven months in June, 2012. Specifically, the resolution, 2012/2712 (RSP)  “strongly condemns the decision to force Ms. Feng to have an abortion and condemns the practice of forced abortions and sterilizations globally, especially in the context of the one-child policy.”  The resolution further states that “the EU has provided, and still provides, funds for organizations involved in family planning policies in China,” and “urges the Commission to ensure that its funding of projects does not breach” the European Parliament’s commitment against coercive population control.

It is significant that the European Parliament has acknowledged that it provides funding for family planning in China and has urged the Commission to ensure that this funding is not associated with coercion.  For decades, the UNFPA has worked hand in hand with the Chinese population control machine, which is coercive.  We have no doubt that any unbiased investigation by the European Parliament, the United Nations, or any other governmental body will reveal that UNFPA is complicit with coercive family planning in China.  The UNCSW should likewise undertake such an investigation.

We have called for an investigation of UNFPA repeatedly in the past.  This call has been ignored.  The time to investigate UNFPA is now.

The Chinese Government Persecutes the Children of Dissidents

 On a personal note, this report would not be complete without including the story of Anni Zhang, daughter of celebrated pro-democracy activist Zhang Lin.  The Chinese government has detained Zhang Lin on and off for more than 13 years since the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.  At one point he was tortured nearly to death and and was confined to a wheelchair.  When the Chinese Communist Party could not silence Zhang Lin by persecuting him directly, they resorted to persecuting his 10-year-old daughter Anni.  Anni was called into the principal’s office at her elementary school one day in April 2013, and from there was whisked away by four unidentified men who detained her overnight, cold, hungry and frightened.  She was then denied the right to attend school.  She and her father were placed under house arrest for months.  They escaped and became fugitives.  When they were caught, they reached out to Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, asking us to get Anni out of China.  My husband and I offered to raise her as our own daughter.  With the help of many brave souls in China, several of whom remain in detention to this day, as well as Jing Zhang, President of Women’s Rights in China and Rep. Christopher Smith, we were able to secure safe passage for Anni and her sister Ruli to come to the United States.

It was only after Anni arrived and had been living in our home for months that we discovered that she is a survivor of the One Child Policy.  Family planning police had severely harassed her mother, trying to force her to abort Anni.  Her parents held firm despite extreme pressure and Anni was born. Every day I am reminded by my beautiful Chinese daughter of the immeasurable loss of every baby forcibly aborted and every girl selectively aborted under China’s One Child Policy.  Anni has turned out to be something of a prodigy on the piano.  Her brave father, Zhang Lin, remains in prison to this day.  “China’s youngest detainee decries torture of father.” http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/chinas-youngest-detainee-decries-torture-of-father/.  5/8/14; “Daughter of Chinese Activist Arrives in US to Begin New Life.” http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/281475-daughter-of-chinese-activist-arrives-in-us-to-begin-new-life/.  8/8/13; “Sisters beg presidents for dad’s freedom.” http://www.wnd.com/2013/12/sisters-beg-presidents-for-dads-freedom/.  12/17/13.

Forced Abortion Is Official Government Rape

 The Chinese forced abortion policy is systematic, institutionalized violence against women.  Because of the sheer numbers involved, it is the most massive women’s rights issue in the world today, and it must be stopped.

President Xi Jinping, you are uniquely positioned to end the greatest human rights atrocity on earth today.  Since you are able to accomplish this, you are morally obligated to do so.  Let this be the legacy of your presidency:  to transform Chinese law and culture so that women can truly “hold up half the sky.”

Sincerely,

Reggie Littlejohn

[1] Read the Study: The Effect of Induced Abortion on the Risk of Low Birth Weight, Cui Limin http://hub.hku.hk/bitstream/10722/183648/1/FullText.pdf?accept=1

[2] Agreed conclusions on the elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls, UNCSW 2013, pp. 5, 14.   http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/csw57/CSW57_Agreed_Conclusions_%28CSW_report_excerpt%29.pdf

Posted in China, China's One Child Policy, coerced abortion, Forced Abortion, forced sterilization, gendercide, Hillary Clinton, human dignity, Human Rights, human trafficking, One Child Policy, rape, Reggie Littlejohn, reproductive health, reproductive rights, right to choose, sexual slavery, Trafficking in Persons Report, Uncategorized, UNFPA, Women's Rights Without Frontiers, Xi Jinping, Zhang Anni, Zhang Lin | Comments Off on 34th Anniversary of China’s Barbaric One Child Policy Today: Open Letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping

WRWF CONDEMNS 3.5 YEAR SENTENCE OF PRO-DEMOCRACY ACTIVIST; ZHANG LIN TO APPEAL

Posted on September 22, 2014 by Reggie Littlejohn
Zhang Lin and Anni, taken before Zhang Lin's arrest on July 18, 2013. Photo credit: Hu Jia

Zhang Lin with his daughter Anni in 2013. Photo credit: Hu Jia

Renowned pro-democracy activist Zhang Lin, currently serving his fifth detention since 1989, has been sentenced to 3.5 years in jail for “gathering a crowd to disrupt order in a public place” while peacefully advocating for his young daughter’s right to attend school.  He has initiated the appeal process.

In April 2013, Zhang Lin’s younger daughter Anni was kidnapped out of her elementary school and detained overnight, because of the pro-democracy activism of her father.  Anni was ten years old at the time and has become known as “China’s youngest prisoner of conscience.”   A crowd of activists gathered after government officials detained Anni overnight, then denied her the right to go to school.  Anni had to leave China in order to receive an education in the United States.  Women’s Rights Without Frontiers President Reggie Littlejohn and her husband Robert are now raising Anni and her older sister, Ruli, as part of their family in San Jose, California.

Anni and Lily Zhang, safely in San Francisco with Reggie Littlejohn and her husband, Robert

The Zhang sisters, Anni and Ruli, with Reggie Littlejohn and her husband, Robert, who have taken them into their family

Littlejohn stated, “WRWF condemns the shocking three and a half year jail sentence of Zhang Lin.  Zhang did what any father would do:  he exposed the unprecedented and indefensible detention of his innocent, 10-year-old daughter, and he stood up for her right to go to school.  The persecution of young children to silence their parents is official child abuse.  It is the ultimate act of cowardice.  I believe that this unjustifiably harsh sentence is part of the Chinese Communist Party’s wider crack-down on dissent.  Why is the CCP so threatened by those who call for freedom, honesty and transparency in government?  Could it be that they fear a loss of control?  Zhang Lin is a hero.  It is a sad commentary on the CCP that the greatest heroes in China are in jail.”

When the Tiananmen Square massacre occurred, Zhang Lin bravely refused to leave his post leading the pro-democracy protests in Bengbu City, Anhui Province.  Immediately after June 4, he was jailed for a year and then spent two years in a Chinese forced labor camp.  During this time, and in subsequent detentions, he was beaten and tortured.  His health was broken to the point that after his fourth detention, his daughter Anni, who was eight years old at the time, had to care for him because he could not move.

When the Chinese Communist Party could not silence the indomitable Zhang Lin with multiple incarcerations and tortures, they went after his young daughter, Anni.  When she was just ten years old, unidentified men whisked her away from her elementary school and detained her overnight.  Once freed from detention, she was not allowed to return to school.  When her father exposed this abuse of his daughter, the two of them were placed under house arrest.  Ultimately, Zhang Lin was detained again, on July 18, 2013.  His sentencing has been delayed twice and he remains in jail today. Because there was no one to take care of Anni, last September Women’s Rights Without Frontiers was able to obtain safe passage to the United States for Anni and her older sister Ruli.  We did this with the help of Congressman Chris Smith, Jing Zhang of Women’s Rights in China, and many other brave people in the United States and China.  Four people remain in detention in China today because they helped Anni.

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers now releases the Open Letter of Ruli and Anni Zhang, pleading for the release of their father, Zhang Lin.  (A link to the English translation is below.)

 Littlejohn continued, “As the American parents of the Anni and Ruli Zhang, it is heartbreaking to witness their anguish over the harsh sentence of their heroic father, Zhang Lin.  They cannot help but compare their lives of freedom and opportunity in the United States with their father’s unjust imprisonment.  It is our joy and honor to be able to help pro-democracy hero Zhang Lin by raising his daughters in our family.  As he languishes in prison for his bravery, at least Zhang Lin has the comfort of knowing that his precious daughters are safe, happy and free in the United States.  And I hope that he feels proud that Anni and Ruli are continuing to fight for democracy in China, from U.S. soil.

“Zhang Lin is innocent.  We support his decision to appeal and join his daughters in demanding his immediate and unconditional release.  We also demand the release of three other brave men who are in jail now for having helped Anni:  Yao Cheng, Li Huaping and Zhou Weilin.

Read the text of the Open Letter of Ruli and Anni Zhang, translated into English:

Daughters of Zhang Lin Decry his 3.5 Year Sentence – Open Letter
http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/blog/?p=1786

Read the original Chinese text of the Open Letter: http://www.nvquan.org/2014/09/35.html

Posted in Reggie Littlejohn, Tiananmen Square, Uncategorized, Women's Rights Without Frontiers, Zhang Anni, Zhang Lin, Zhang Ruli | Comments Off on WRWF CONDEMNS 3.5 YEAR SENTENCE OF PRO-DEMOCRACY ACTIVIST; ZHANG LIN TO APPEAL

Daughters of Zhang Lin Decry his 3.5 Year Sentence — Open Letter

Posted on September 19, 2014 by Reggie Littlejohn
(Photo Credit: Reggie Littlejohn)

Anni and Ruli Zhang in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.  (Photo Credit: Reggie Littlejohn)

Dear President Obama, President Xi Jinping and other World Leaders,

Greetings!

We are Zhang Ruli and Zhang Anni, the daughters of Chinese pro-democracy activist Zhang Lin.  Our father’s case was tried [in December 2013], and [after three delays], now his sentence has finally been announced. The news is shocking: Zhang Lin has been sentenced for three years and six months!

What did he do wrong?

In February 2013, our father brought Anni from our hometown, Bengbu City, to a school in Hefei City. Simply because my father is a pro-democracy activist, 10-year-old Anni was abducted by the state police of Hefei City and was detained alone for more than 4 hours. She spent the night in detention and was not allowed to go back to school in Hefei. Little Anni was thus deprived of her education, and she kept herself at home and refused to meet people [because she was afraid of people due to her experience being detained]. If his 10-year-old, innocent daughter were involved and persecuted like this, what father would NOT seek justice for her? Not to mention that our father is an intrepid man!

After this incident, our father sought justice for Anni, and was supported by many internet users in China after he released the information. Last April, Chinese netizens spontaneously gathered around Hefei, seeking justice for our father and Anni, in the hope that Anni could return to school. Contrary to their wishes, they did not receive justice. Rather, these friends were subjected to different levels of detention as a punishment. In addition, my father and Anni were monitored by Bengbu City’s National Security Guards, 24 hours a day since that time.

In the evening of Sept 18th 2013, our father, Zhang Lin, was arrested on the charge of “disturbing the public order.” On Dec 18th, his case was tried, but no verdict was rendered. Between then and now, the Provincial High Court delayed the sentencing three months; the Supreme Court delayed the sentencing twice, and each extension was for three months. The latest extension began on August 18th. We thought it would be dragged to November, but who could have predicted that on August 30th, the court would suddenly give notice that the verdict would be rendered on September 5th. The notice came out so late that neither of my father’s lawyers could attend the sentencing on that day. Only my paternal grandparents [who are sick] helped each other walk to attend.

Prior to this, because our father Zhang Lin has adhered to the path of democracy, he has been imprisoned four times during his life and lost his freedom for a total of thirteen years.  Because of the long-term imprisonment and the abuses he had in prison, our father has suffered many diseases, from which he has not been cured. Because of this advocacy for the path of democracy, our father dedicated almost his entire life, but finally he still got mired in imprisonment, and his children have been forced out of their home country.Now, we are very concerned that his physical condition can no longer endure the torture of jailing.

 

But carefully recall, what exactly did he do wrong? Was it wrong to tell people the truth that he was being persecuted day and night? Was it wrong to stand up when his daughter was kidnapped from school and detained for 24 hours by police officers? Was it wrong to fight for his daughter’s right to school? In my opinion, the Chinese Communist Party is retaliating against dissenters like my father by putting them in jail because people like my father reveal the CCP’s dictatorship and corruption to the whole world!

 

So by this letter, we appeal to get your attention, because your attention may help our father gain freedom!

 

At the same time, we appeal for Uncle Yao Cheng, Uncle Zhou Weilin and Uncle Li Huaping. Because of the Heifei event, they are still in jail right now. On July 30th this year, Uncle Li was put on trial in Wuhu city; on August 6th of this year, uncle Yao and Zhou were put on trial in Hefei. None of them has received his verdict yet. They used their just hearts, bravely stood up and cried for freedom. Their spirit inspired us. We cannot forget them as well as many other political prisoners in China who are being persecuted, because they are sacrificing their freedom in exchange for the freedom of others! We hope our Father and Uncles will be released from prison as soon as possible. We call upon President Obama and other national leadership to pay more attention to the human rights situation in China. We also expect China to be on the road to constitutional democracy soon!

 

In the end, we are two daughters who are missing their father. We appeal again and loudly for our father and uncles: Pay attention to them please! Because your attention may help bring about their freedom!

Ruli and Anni Zhang,
Daughters of Pro-Democracy Activist Zhang Lin

Read the original Chinese text of the Open Letter:
http://www.nvquan.org/2014/09/35.html

Posted in Obama, Uncategorized, Women's Rights Without Frontiers, Xi Jinping, Zhang Anni, Zhang Lin, Zhang Ruli | Comments Off on Daughters of Zhang Lin Decry his 3.5 Year Sentence — Open Letter

WORLD Magazine Interviews WRWF’s Reggie Littlejohn on her Faith Journey

Posted on September 1, 2014 by Reggie Littlejohn

Reggie Littlejohn

Reggie Littlejohn

Reggie Littlejohn shares her personal faith journey here, speaking as a private individual

Q&A: God used Reggie Littlejohn’s suffering to shape her into an advocate for China’s voiceless

By Marvin Olasky

Reggie Littlejohn is the founder and head of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, a leading opponent of forced abortion in China. Here are edited excerpts of our interview.

How did you startle your parents when you were 16 and refused to go to church anymore? I grew up in a Christian home and at age 16 decided there’s no God. So I wrote my parents a letter, sat them down, had them read the letter aloud, and told them I was no longer going to church.

And how did they take that? I’m sure they prayed over it, but they allowed me to not go to church, so I did not go during high school and college.

In college an ancient literature course had some effect on you? I had to take an ancient literature course for my major and we had to read the Gospel of John. I had never read a book of the Bible start-to-finish before.

You grew up in a Christian home, but never read a whole book of the Bible. No. When I read John, I saw who Jesus was—and this was not whom I was rejecting. So that moved me from being an atheist to being an agnostic.

Because you appreciated it but still did not believe it? Right.

You married at age 27? Yeah, and he had something to do with my conversion in the sense of believing in God, because falling in love with him and looking into his eyes I just could not believe that he had simply evolved from blue-green algae. It was just not possible.

You worked as a litigator for eight years in the San Francisco area and toward the end did pro bono work for refugees from China who were victims of the one-child policy. What effect did that have on you? I remember sitting behind my desk in my beautiful law firm surrounded by freedom and civilization thinking to myself, Right at this moment, on the other side of the world women are dragged out of their homes, strapped down to tables, and forced to abort babies up until the ninth month of pregnancy. I was utterly appalled.

You had some sleepless nights about that? Many. It haunted me that this was happening. Typical of any associate, I had a sleeping bag in my office. At one point I did not leave my office for 10 days, just working flat out. I was driven.

Haunted and driven, you also had a miscarriage. I was heartbroken. I called my mother and asked, “Why would God allow me to become pregnant with a baby who would be loved and cared for wonderfully in this world—and then take that baby away?” My mother said, “We will never know the answer to that question, but God does everything for a purpose. And I believe if you offer your suffering up to Him, He will use it.”

And then another miscarriage. It’s not the same as having someone break into your home, drag you out, and force you to abort a baby, usually without even anesthesia. But I know what it is like to lose a baby, so when I heard about forced abortions, my heart went out to these women in a way that it might not have if I had not miscarried my own babies.

Then you had medical problems. I had bilateral mastectomies and caught this hospital super bug, the MRSA staph infection. My hair was coming out in handfuls. My kidneys, my liver, my immune system were all affected, and I was disabled for five years. I went overnight from high-powered litigation lawyer to lying on my back and begging God to spare my life.

How did that suffering change you? I went from being a driven person to someone completely helpless. God had to do that to me because I’m so stubborn. If He hadn’t, probably I’d be a partner in a law firm right now and continuing on that path. Since I was not committing adultery or murder, since I wasn’t stealing or lying, since I represented Chinese refugees on the side, I thought I was an exemplary Christian.

What changed your mind? I saw in reading the Bible over and over again that almost my entire life was based on a violation of the first commandment, “I am the Lord your God … you shall have no other gods before me.” Obviously I was not worshiping statues of Baal and Molech in my living room, but I was idolizing money, power, prestige, my boss, my house, my car. Everything I idolized, God took from me. I was left with complete dependence on Him. And He turned me from a life of focusing on making lots of money as an attorney to saving lives in China.

How did you go deeper into that? In 2008 I was one of thousands of people to receive an email about a conference on Chinese and North Korean human rights. I wrote the president saying, “How come no one is speaking about the one-child policy?” The president emailed me back: “Don’t you realize the coercive enforcement of the one-child policy is a thing of the past? It’s all voluntary now.” And I said, “Oh, is that so?” I started hitting him with document after document, to the extent where he finally said, “I surrender. I see now that forced abortion is happening right now in China. Would you be our expert, the first person ever to address the European Parliament on the issue of the one-child policy?”

And that led to your setting up Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, with a laser focus—just China’s one-child policy—and a name that can appeal to people on the left. Yes. This is a women’s rights issue.

I’ve read in the conventional media that China’s one-child policy is over. What’s the reality? Headlines like “China Abandons the One-Child Policy” are an ongoing, intense frustration for me. China is heading for a demographic disaster, so leaders are slightly modifying the policy: If one member of a couple is an only child, the couple can have a second child. The exception is very narrow and will affect only 5 million couples. Even under this exception, those couples who can have two children will need to have a birth permit for their first child and their second child. If they don’t have one, they are still at risk of forced abortion.

No birth permit, no child—legally? That’s right.

What about your own family, which has grown recently? Well, we have two new Chinese—I call them daughters, because they are daughters to my husband and me, although we cannot legally adopt them—but they are the daughters of a famous dissident. The Chinese Communist Party persecutes the children of dissidents, but we were able to get them to the United States. They’re now 11 and 19.

Are they reading whole books of the Bible? Every night we read about half a chapter of the Gospel of John and discuss it—a Bible study at the dinner table every night, and church on Sunday.

View the original article at WorldMag.com. Republished with permission: http://www.worldmag.com/2014/06/complete_dependence/page1

 

Posted in All Girls Allowed, China's One Child Policy, Forced Abortion, Gospel of John, mastectomy, miscarriage, MRSA staph, One Child Policy, Reggie Littlejohn, Uncategorized, Women's Rights Without Frontiers | Comments Off on WORLD Magazine Interviews WRWF’s Reggie Littlejohn on her Faith Journey

WRWF Files Complaint at U.N. Againt China’s Forced Abortion

Posted on August 25, 2014 by Reggie Littlejohn

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers has filed a Complaint with the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) against the Chinese Government for the coercive enforcement of China’s One Child Policy. (See attached, as well as the electronic link below.) The Complaint chronicles the history of savagely cruel and profoundly disturbing reports emerging from China over the past year, including:

  • In China’s Guangxi Region, a man stabbed to death two government workers after they told him he could not register his fourth child because he did not pay the “social compensation fee.”  He injured four other workers, including severing the hand of one. “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.  (Although this incident happened before August 1, 2013, it happened so close to the deadline that it was not included in our 2013 report, so we have included it here.)
  • 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.  “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
  • In Shandong Province, Liu Xinwen was dragged out of her home in the middle of the night by 20 officials, who kicked down her door and restrained her husband.  They forcibly aborted her, six months pregnant.  “China Couple Speak of ‘Forced Abortion.’”  http://news.sky.com/story/1150016/china-couple-speak-of-forced-abortion 10/4/13
  • Ai Guangdong, a farmer in Hebei Province, killed himself by drinking pesticide during a dispute with family planning officials over fines for his over-quota children.  Since the farmer did not have money to pay the fines, family planning officials confiscated 3.5 tons of corn, the entire savings of the family.  Ai Guangdong then visited the home of the Party Chief to dispute this action.  Finally the farmer drank pesticide at the home of the Party Chief, and promptly died.  “Farmer drinks poison after being fined for violations of family planning policy.” http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/830847.shtml 12/8/13
  • In Xinjiang Province, four Uyghur women were forcibly aborted, one of them at nine months.  As ethnic minorities, Uyghurs are supposedly exempt from the One Child Policy.  This is not the case. While they may have more than one child, they are nevertheless subject to coercive termination of out-of-plan pregnancies.  “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
  • 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.  It has been estimated that 70,000 children a year are trafficked in China.  The doctor sold boys at a premium, costing more than twice as much as girls.  “Obstetrician convicted in Chinese baby-trafficking case.” http://www.wnd.com/2014/01/obstetrician-convicted-in-chinese-baby-trafficking-case/ 1/16/14; “Chinese doctor sentenced to death for selling babies.”  http://nypost.com/2014/01/14/chinese-doctor-sentenced-to-death-for-selling-babies/ 1/14/14
  • In Guizhou Province, a farmer and father of four committed suicide because he could not afford to pay the fines to enroll his children in school.  His wife stated, “He said to me before he cut his wrists, ‘What did we bring them into the world for, to be as dumb as cattle?  I cannot see my children grow up uneducated.’” After his death, the authorities provided the family with a new house and money to educate the children. “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

 The Complaint argues that the recent “reform” – really, a minor modification – of the One Child Policy has done little or nothing to end coercive population control or gendercide.

 The Complaint discusses the connection between China’s One Child Policy and sexual slavery, arguing that the State Department’s recent promotion of China from a Tier 3 to a Tier 2 nation was baseless and unwarranted.

 The Complaint also discusses a recent study finding that multiple abortions leads to a greatly increased risk of breast cancer.

 The Complaint decries the Chinese Communist Party’s practice of persecuting the children of dissidents, including Anni Zhang, ten-years-old at the time of her persecution, who is now being cared for in the United States by WRWF President Reggie Littlejohn and her husband.

 The Complaint acknowledges the UNCSW for its “Agreed Conclusions” condemning forced abortion, sterilization and contraception.  It nevertheless challenges the UNCSW to investigate the UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund), which was found to be complicit with coercive family planning by former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

WRWF President Reggie Littlejohn stated:  “The mayhem caused by China’s One Child Policy continues unabated and has taken some troubling new twists, with people being driven to mental breakdown, murder and suicide, as well as an obstetrician using her position of trust in order to traffic babies.  The minor modification of the Policy that took place on January 1 of this year has failed to solve these problems.  The One Child Policy does not need to be modified.  It needs to be abolished.”

The full Complaint can be read here: http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/blog/?p=1759

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

Watch a four-minute video, “Stop Forced Abortion – China’s War on Women”: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjtuBcJUsjY

Learn more about our campaign to save girls in China: http://womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=end-gendercide-and-forced-abortion

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Fines for too many children drive farmer to suicide

Posted on August 19, 2014 by Reggie Littlejohn

By Bob Unruh

(WND.com) – Enough. Is. Enough.

That’s the message from Reggie Littlejohn, founder and president of Womens Rights Without Frontiers, she is urging the United Nations to deliver to China for its abuse of women and children.

She wants the global body to investigate one of its own branches for complicity in the abuse.

“The mayhem caused by China’s One-Child Policy continues unabated and has taken some troubling new twists, with people being driven to mental breakdown, murder and suicide, as well as an obstetrician using her position of trust in order to traffic babies,” Littlejohn said Monday.

She said a minor modification China made in its policy Jan. 1 has failed to solve the problems.

“The One-Child Policy does not need to be modified,” she declared. “It needs to be abolished.”

Her organization has filed a formal complaint with the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women. It notes that while the agency has reached a statement condemning China’s routinely imposed forced abortion, sterilization and contraception, nothing has changed.

The complaint also said the U.N. Population Fund should be investigated for its participation in the forced abortion programs.

In her letter to the UNCSW, Littlejohn cited the consequences of the Chinese population control plan, as evidenced by recent events.

“In China’s Guangxi Region, a man stabbed to death two government workers after they told him he could not register his fourth child because he did not pay the ‘social compensation fee.’ He injured four other workers, including severing the hand of one,” she noted.

Then there was the husband in Hunan Province who demanded government compensation because his wife “has suffered from schizophrenia and violent behavior since she was forcibly aborted at seven months.”

Ai Guangdong, a farmer in Hebei Province, killed himself by drinking pesticide during a dispute with family planning officials over fines for having too many children, Littlejohn said.

“Since the farmer did not have money to pay the fines, family planning officials confiscated 3.5 tons of corn, the entire savings of the family.” He drank pesticide and died.

Then there was the case of the obstetrician in Shaanxi province, Zhang Shuxia, who was convicted of trafficking seven infants, “after she had convinced their parents that the infants were seriously ill or deceased,” Littlejohn reported.

And in Guizhou Province, a farmer and father of four committed suicide because he could not afford to pay the fines to enroll his children in school. His wife stated her husband said to her before he cut his wrists: “What did we bring them into the world for, to be as dumb as cattle? I cannot see my children grow up uneducated.”

Littlejohn noted to the U.N. that her group previously has submitted similar complaints, but China “has never responded to them.”

“We believe that, given the international outrage generated by forced abortion and gendercide in China, it behooves China to respond.”

The NWCSW theme for 2013 was “Elimination and Prevention of All Forms of Violence Against Women and Girls.”

“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,” she told the UNCSW, which has reached “Agreed Conclusions” that denounce the attacks.

“The Chinese government … is the major perpetrator in the world of ‘forced medical procedures’ of the kind set forth in the UNCSW Agreed Conclusions. The UNCSW should put teeth into its Agreed Conclusions by presenting this complaint to the Chinese government and requiring a response,” Littlejohn said.

Moreover, the UNFPA should be thoroughly investigated for being part of the problem not the solution, she wrote.

“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,” she said. “In a striking blow against China’s One Child Policy, the European Parliament passed a resolution strongly condemning forced abortion and involuntary sterilization in China and globally, citing Feng Jianmei, who was forcibly aborted at seven months in June, 2012.”

Littlejohn said it’s “significant that the European Parliament has acknowledged that it provides funding for family planning in China and has urged the commission to ensure that this funding is not associated with coercion.”

“For decades, the UNFPA has worked hand in hand with the Chinese population control machine, which is coercive. We have no doubt that any unbiased investigation by the European Parliament, the United Nations, or any other governmental body will reveal that UNFPA is complicit with coercive family planning in China. The UNCSW should likewise undertake such an investigation,” she said.

“The One-Child Policy causes more violence against women and girls than any other official policy on earth,” she said. “It is China’s war on women. Any discussion of women’s rights, or human rights, would be a charade if forced abortion in China is not front and center.”

She noted former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton agreed.

“For every family that posts their experience of heartbreak on the Internet – and thereby risks persecution by the Chinese Communist Party – there are thousands or millions who suffer silently,” Littleton said.

“This year, we have seen a tragic rise in murder and suicide associated with the crushing ‘social compensation fees,’ which can cost up to 14 times a person’s annual salary, an amount the vast majority of Chinese citizens cannot afford. If the parents are unable to pay these ‘terror fines,’ their children will be denied ‘hukou,’ or household registration. Without hukou, children are ineligible for healthcare or education. They become illegal aliens in their own land,” she said.

WND reportedly last month WRWF’s objections to the decision by the Obama State Department to promote China from a “Tier 3″ very serious offender to a “Tier 2″ status on the U.S. human-rights watch list.

The move apparently was based on China’s decision to allow a few families to have a second child legally.

WRWF has launched its “Save a Girl” program to undermine China’s one-child policy, which encourages couples to abort their female babies in favor of males, because of the culture’s emphasis on male offspring.

According to Littlejohn, her group’s network of fieldworkers on the ground in China visits women who are thinking of aborting or abandoning their baby girls.

“We offer them monthly stipends for a year to help them keep their daughters. The program has met with great success – women are choosing to keep their baby daughters, with our encouragement and help.”

She said one recent example involves the mother of babies Bao-yo and Hui-ying, whose names have been changed for security reasons.

When their mother learned she was pregnant, she was thrilled, Littlejohn said.

“Soon, however, her in-laws began pressuring her to have a boy, so she went to a local hospital to have an ultrasound performed to determine the sex of the child,” she said. “If it were a boy, she would have the baby. If it were a girl, she would abort. What would have been double her happiness turned to double despair: she was pregnant with not one, but two girls. When her husband’s family found out the news, they were furious with their daughter-in-law. She didn’t know what to do.”

Littlejohn said a Women’s Rights Without Frontiers’ undercover fieldworkers found the frightened woman and told her about the group’s “Save a Girl” campaign.

“The pregnant mother and her husband could not believe an American organization would care about their daughters,” she said. “Our fieldworker showed them pictures and told them stories of other families we have helped, other families who chose to join with us in believing that girls matter just as much as boys.”

Read original article at WND.com. Republished with permission: http://www.wnd.com/2014/08/fines-for-too-many-children-drive-farmer-to-suicide/

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Fines for too many children drive farmer to suicide