Womens Rights Without Frontiers

This Thanksgiving, Give thanks for a life by saving one: Introducing the “Save a Girl” Campaign

Posted on November 22, 2012 by Reggie Littlejohn

Here’s an awesome article by Kristen Walker Hatten, posted on Live Action News today. Here’s the link to the original story. http://liveactionnews.org/international/introducing-the-save-a-girl-campaign/

Here’s the direct link to our “Save a Girl” Campaign http://womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=end-gendercide-and-forced-abortion

Give Thanks for a life by saving one: Introducing the “Save a Girl” Campaign

By Kirsten Walker Hatter, Live Action News

Reggie Littlejohn is busy.

When we speak on the phone, she’s in the process of traveling through Washington, D.C., by train and on foot. At one point, her train goes underground and we’re cut off. Two weeks ago, we couldn’t speak because she was traveling in Europe.

Why is Reggie Littlejohn so busy? Because, as president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, she was involved in the documentary film It’s A Girl, which is being screened around the world as we speak. Recently, it was shown at the British Parliament and the European Parliament, to a diverse audience. “I think it’s pretty encouraging that the film was featured in the Amnesty International Film Festival just a few weeks ago,” says Littlejohn. “Amnesty International is not a pro-life organization.”

Littlejohn is also busy because her organization has launched a campaign that directly, literally saves baby girls. The Save A Girl campaign is one that anyone can get involved in, and it is an excellent way to give thanks for life this Thanksgiving season. The fact is, the multifarious crimes against women, girls, and the unborn in China and India explored in It’s A Girl – forced abortion, female feticide, infanticide, dowry death, and more – are not going away without help from people outside those countries. People like me. And you.

“India does not have a one-child policy,” Littlejohn explains. “India does not have a government-imposed birth limit. People are much freer in India to have a grassroots movement.” As the film explains, though, unfortunately, the culture in India – specifically the tradition of dowry –makes sons so preferred over daughters that deep cultural change will be needed to end crime against women and girls.

In China, things are more difficult; grassroots movements are impossible. “You can’t do that in China. It’s a Communist country where they control the media. People who challenge it end up like Chen Guangcheng,” Littlejohn says, referring to the blind human rights lawyer who was imprisoned for representing women in his province who had been forcibly sterilized or forced to abort their children.

Littlejohn, herself an attorney who has represented Chinese refugees and helped bring Guangcheng to the U.S., is no longer allowed into China.

“There are basically two circumstances of abortion in China,” she says. “The first is forced abortion under the One Child Policy. So if people get pregnant without a birth permit or permission and they can’t pay the fine, they end up with a forced abortion, and that abortion, it doesn’t matter if it’s a boy or a girl.” She also explains that the fines can sometimes be ten times the family’s annual income. “Then there’s gendercide, where baby girls are selected for abortion. The government is not forcing them to do that, but there is a strong correlation between coercion and gendercide.”

In other words, sons are so preferred and the number of children so strictly limited that female babies are selected for abortion – an indirect but clear result of the One Child Policy.

“It’s not just a matter of changing laws,” says Littlejohn. “You’ve got to change the culture.”

Reggie Littlejohn

In China, there is already evidence of a growing ratio of men to women, and it’s getting worse. “Already child bride kidnapping is happening in China,” Littlejohn tells me. “Also, another big effect is human kidnapping and sexual slavery. China is very much a destination for women and girls who have been trafficked for sexual slavery. Another thing they have is bachelor villages.”

Because females are so often abandoned, killed, or aborted, wives are in high demand, and women are often able to marry above their social strata, leaving poorer men wifeless. “So in the poor villages, the women have all married up, and there are only men in these villages,” Littlejohn says.

While these crimes against females sound foreign and unbelievable, the sad truth is they have come to America. “Studies have indicated that there is sex-selective abortion in the U.S. in communities that practice it in their native land,” says Littlejohn.” The thing that concerns me is the connection between sex-selection abortion and coercion. In most cases I believe in the U.S., as well as China and India, women are under intense pressure to abort if it’s a girl.”

So. The big question: what do we do? How do we stop this?

Changing thousands of years of son-preference culture in two countries and displacing a powerful Communist regime in China will not happen overnight. But there is good news: there is a real, tangible, simple way each one of us can help save the lives of baby girls in China. It’s called the Save A Girl campaign.

“The Save A Girl Campaign is how you can directly save lives in China,” Littlejohn says. “This is the official campaign that is endorsed by the It’s A Girl film.”

Littlejohn explained to me how it worked, and I had to force myself to respond through tears. I’ve been involved in the pro-life movement in various ways for several years, and this is one of the most exciting, moving campaigns I’ve heard of. Here’s how it works: “We have a network inside China of field workers who find women who have had an ultrasound and found out they’re pregnant with a girl and have decided to abort her, or have given birth to a girl and want to abandon her out in a field so she’ll die,” explains Littlejohn. “We go to her and say, ‘Don’t abort your daughter. Don’t abandon your daughter. She is a beautiful girl. We will give you a stipend every month for a year to help you keep this girl.’”

Does that sound incredible? Wait ‘til you hear this: “In every case where we have approached these women, they have kept their girls.”

“We ask people to contribute $25 a month,” says Littlejohn. “Twenty dollars goes to the women and $5 goes to cover our costs and to the field workers who are bravely finding these women and getting the money into their hands.” Right now, after having existed for only a little over a month, Save A Girl can claim 28 lives saved and women helped. “We want to have a thousand babies we’re supporting this time next year. Our only limitation is the finances.”

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers runs the campaign, maintains write-ups and photos on each baby, and collects signatures, via their field workers in China, from the parents when they receive the money. Of course, no photos or names are published. “The Chinese communist party would come and shut us down,” says Littlejohn.

“Our primary focus is to end gendercide,” Littlejohn says, “so we’re definitely locating women who are determined to abort or abandon babies. The other thing we’re doing is helping women who are fleeing from forced abortions. We have one woman who was fleeing from village to village to avoid the family planning police. She had a baby boy a few months ago.”

So Save A Girl is saving more than girls – this campaign is saving babies of both genders, and saving women from the horror of forced abortion.

For those of us who read about gendercide and the crimes against women in China and India and say, If only there were something I could do, this is the answer. For about the price of your monthly – or weekly! – Starbucks budget, you can literally save a life.

Here in the U.S. we have so much to be thankful for – not the least of which is the lives of baby girls and young women. This Thanksgiving, give thanks for your life and the lives of all women by giving to Save A Girl. Your donation will literally save a life.

Save a Girl Campaign: http://womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=end-gendercide-and-forced-abortion

Visit the Women’s Rights Without Frontiers website to donate and share this campaign.

Posted in China's One Child Policy, Forced Abortion, gendercide, It's a Girl, Kristen Walker Hatten, Live Action News, One Child Policy, pro-choice, pro-life, Reggie Littlejohn, Save a Girl, Uncategorized, Women's Rights Without Frontiers | Comments Off

China Has Not “Abandoned” One-Child Policy – Think Tank

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Reggie Littlejohn

The China Development Research Foundation (CDRF) — a think tank affiliated with the Chinese government — has recommended that China gradually phase in a two-child policy over the next three years, and then cease all birth limits in the year 2020, according to a China Daily report. This recommendation was based on the coming demographic disaster caused by low birth rates combined with an ageing population, as well as the severe gender imbalance caused by son preference. Some western media sources have exaggerated the report’s recommendations, stating, for example, that the CDRF report concludes that the One Child Policy should be “abandoned immediately . . . sending shock waves through the international community . . .” or urges the Chinese government to “end” or “scrap” the One Child Policy now.

The CDRF report does not support the conclusion that China will “abandon,” “end” or “scrap” the One Child Policy immediately, nor are “shock waves” warranted, for the following reasons.

1) The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has not adopted the CDRF’s recommendations, and is not required ever to do so. Indeed, earlier this year, amidst multiple reports of late-term forced abortions, the National Population and Family Planning Commission affirmed that it continues to stand by the One Child Policy, praising it for preventing 400 million births.

2) Instituting a two-child policy will not end forced abortion. 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, forced sterilization and infanticide. 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, even up to the ninth month of pregnancy. 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.

3) Instituting a two-child policy will not end gendercide. Indeed, areas in which two children currently are allowed are especially vulnerable to gendercide, the sex-selective abortion of females. According to the 2009 British Medical Journal study of 2005 national census data, 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.” 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.

4) The Chinese Communist Party periodically modifies the One Child Policy, but the coercion at its core remains. Reports of these tweaks — especially when amplified by western media — throw the human rights world into confusion and blunt genuine efforts to end forced abortion in China. On September 9, 2010, for example, TIME ran the headline, “China Could Overthrow One-Child Rule.” Myriad other news sources followed suit. This dramatic headline was based on the fact that China proposed to run a pilot program allowing some couples to have two children. Soon afterwards, on September 25, 2010 – the 30^th anniversary of the One Child Policy – a top population control official praised the policy and stated that China “will stick to the family planning policy in the coming decades.” Moreover, despite this pilot program, numerous reports of late-term forced abortions have surfaced since 2010, including the forced abortion at seven months of Feng Jianmei in June 2012. For a discussion of forced abortion cases that have arisen in 2011-2012, read WRWF’s Complaint to the UNCSW. http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/blog/?p=717

Regardless, the CDRF report is courageous and significant because of their connection with the government. It is perhaps because of this connection that they apparently left forced abortion and other human rights atrocities out of their discussion. (Their full report has yet to be released.) Stating that the CDRF has recommended an immediate abandonment of the One Child Policy, however, mischaracterizes the report and abandons the women who are victims of that policy.

The Chinese Communist Party has not “abandoned” the One Child Policy based on the CDRF recommendation. The coercive enforcement of China’s One Child Policy continues to cause more violence toward women and girls than any other official policy on earth, and any other official policy in the history of the world. Those who care about women and girls must continue to press with persistence until forced abortion and gendercide are eradicated from the face of the earth.

View WRWF’s “Save a Girl” campaign to end gendercide and forced abortion.
http://womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=end-gendercide-and-forced-abortion

Sign a petition to end forced abortion.
http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=sign_our_petition

Watch Stop Forced Abortion – China’s War on Women! (4 mins)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjtuBcJUsjY

WRWF’s Reggie Littlejohn Challenges UNFPA, IPPF at European Parliament

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Reggie Littlejohn

Brussels, November 6, 2012. Women’s Rights Without Frontiers President Reggie Littlejohn co-presented the feature-length documentary, “It’s a Girl,” at the European Parliament, together with the film’s director, Evan Grae-Davis. Littlejohn is featured as an expert on China’s One Child Policy in this powerful new documentary exposing gendercide and forced abortion. The event, hosted by MEP Gay Mitchell packed the auditorium.

According to one UN expert, up to 200 million women are missing in the world today due to the sex-selective abortion of baby girls. In China, moreover, the government forcibly aborts women who become pregnant in violation of the One Child Policy, up to the ninth month of pregnancy.

In response to a question about what the European Parliament can do to address this violence against women, Littlejohn raised the issue of the funding of UNFPA and International Planned Parenthood (IPPF).

Littlejohn praised the European Parliament for recently passing a resolution that “strongly 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.

Littlejohn stated, “It is significant that the European Parliament has urged the Commission to ensure that this funding is not associated with coercion. For decades, the UNFPA and International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) have worked hand in hand with the Chinese population control machine, which is coercive. They are funded by many nations, not only in Europe but the world over, including the United States. I have no doubt that any unbiased investigation by the European Parliament or any other governmental body will reveal that these organizations are complicit with coercive family planning in China.”

In addition, Women’s Rights Without Frontiers just launched a campaign to end gendercide and forced abortion in China. Littlejohn said, “We are saving lives in China, one baby girl at a time.” WRWF’s “Save a Girl” campaign has been adopted by the “It’s a Girl” film as its official Action Plan for China.

Causes.com End Gendercide and Forced Abortion in China

http://www.causes.com/causes/792226-women-s-rights-without-frontiers

Check out how you can see the “It’s a Girl” film here.

http://www.itsagirlmovie.com/

Posted in China's One Child Policy, coerced abortion, European Parliament, Evan Grae Davis, Forced Abortion, forced sterilization, gendercide, It's a Girl, pro-choice, pro-life, Reggie Littlejohn, reproductive health, reproductive rights, right to choose, Uncategorized, women, women's rights | Comments Off

WRWF’s Reggie Littlejohn to Co-Present “It’s a Girl” Film on Gendercide in British Parliament Today

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Reggie Littlejohn

LONDON, Oct. 30. Women’s Rights Without Frontiers President Reggie Littlejohn is featured as an expert on China’s One Child Policy in the powerful new film on gendercide, “It’s a Girl.” She will co-present the film at the British Parliament’s House of Lords on Tuesday, October 30, together with the film’s director, Evan Grae Davis and producer Andrew Brown. The event is hosted by Lord Alton of Liverpool and Baronness Howe of Idlicote.

This one-hour documentary is called “It’s a Girl,” as these are the three deadliest words in the world. According to one UN expert, up to 200 million women are missing in the world today due to the sex-selective abortion of baby girls. The film contains extraordinary footage, shot on location in India and China.

Littlejohn stated, “It is a great honor to play a role in this film, which unmasks the brutality of gendercide and leaves an indelible mark on everyone who watches it. This is the authoritative film on gendercide, the true war on women. I believe it will be instrumental in turning the tide against the selective elimination of females, not only because of the power of the film itself, but also because of the urgency of its call to action.”

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers just launched a campaign to end gendercide in China. Littlejohn said, “We are saving lives in China, one baby girl at a time.” WRWF’s “Save a Girl” campaign has been adopted by the “It’s a Girl” film as its official Action Plan for China.

End Gendercide — Save a Girl Campaign

http://womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=end-gendercide-and-forced-abortion

Causes.com End Gendercide and Forced Abortion in China

http://www.causes.com/causes/792226-women-s-rights-without-frontiers

In China, the birth ratio of girls to boys is the most skewed in the world: 100 girls born for every 120 boys. Because of traditional son preference, there is a saying: “Raising a girl is like watering someone else’s garden.”

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 in China. China has the highest female suicide rate of any country in the world — 500 women a day.

The “It’s a Girl” film is an official selection at the Amnesty International 2012 REEL Awareness Film Festival. Check out how you can see the film here.

“It’s a Girl” Website: http://www.itsagirlmovie.com

Posted in Amnesty International, British Parliament, Forced Abortion, forced sterilization, House of Lords, Human Rights, human trafficking, It's a Girl, Lord David Alton, One Child Policy, Reggie Littlejohn, reproductive health, reproductive rights, right to choose, Uncategorized, war on women, Women's Rights Without Frontiers | Comments Off

Christian Bale Honors Chen Guangcheng, Denounces Forced Abortion in China

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Reggie Littlejohn

On Thursday actor Christian Bale presented blind forced abortion opponent Chen Guangcheng with an award at the annual gala of Human Rights First. In December 2011, while Chen was still in China under house arrest, Bale attempted to visit Chen but was roughed up by thugs, who prevented him from visiting Chen’s village. Bale said at that time, “What I really wanted to do was shake the man’s hand and say ‘thank you,’ and tell him what an inspiration he is.”

Chen dramatically escaped house arrest and arrived in the United States in May 2012. The two men met for the first time tonight, when Bale presented Chen with the award.

Bale praised Chen for his bravery and for symbolizing the hopes of the people of China to live in freedom. Significantly, Bale also highlighted Chen’s fight against forced abortion in China. Bale stated,

“He [Chen] had exposed a program of forced abortion and sterilization in Shandong. A program of forced abortion means that women are being dragged from their homes against their will. They are being forced to have abortions, sometimes late-term — imagine that — with some women reportedly dying in the process. Now this is true horror. And in this insane world, this man, Chen, who was helping these women — who was living by some of the most simple, brave and universally admired values – values that we teach our children every day, and helping our fellow man – for this, this man was imprisoned and beaten for over four years.”

Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, stated, “Chen Guangcheng is a towering champion of human rights, who with incomparable courage, stood alone against the Chinese totalitarian regime. The women of China and the world will long remember his bravery on their behalf.”

“At the same time,” Littlejohn added, “Christian Bale has become a human rights champion in his own right. He risked his safety to visit Chen last December. His attack by Chinese thugs brought visibility to Chen’s case. This visibility greatly helped the international effort to free Chen. And Bale is brave to condemn the practice of forced abortion in China. Women’s Rights Without Frontiers salutes both men.”

Watch Christian Bale present Chen Guangcheng with the award.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/blind-chinese-activist-chen-guangcheng-honored-in-new-york/2012/10/25/3ddcafdf-2b9c-4dee-a953-b35357f708b3_video.html

Watch a video about forced abortion in China (4 mins)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjtuBcJUsjY

WRWF led the international coalition to free Chen Guangcheng.

http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=chen-guangcheng

Posted in Chen Guangcheng, China's One Child Policy, Christian Bale, Forced Abortion, forced sterilization, Human Rights, Uncategorized, Women's Rights Without Frontiers | Comments Off

China: “Save a Girl” Campaign Launched on First International Day of the Girl Child

Posted on October 11, 2012 by Reggie Littlejohn

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA. October 11 marks the first International Day of the Girl Child, as recognized by the UN General Assembly. To coincide with this event, Women’s Rights Without Frontiers is launching its “Save a Girl” campaign to end gendercide in China.

Experts estimate that between 160 and 200 million women are missing in the world today because of the sex-selective abortion of baby girls. Because of this gendercide, there are now 37 million more men living in China than women, which gender imbalance is driving human trafficking and sexual slavery not only in China but in many of the surrounding nations as well.

In response, Women’s Rights Without Frontiers has launched its “Save a Girl” campaign to end gendercide. According to WRWF President Reggie Littlejohn, “This campaign is a way that people can directly help save lives in China.” The campaign is designed to:

Combat Gendercide. WRWF is giving monthly stipends for a year to mothers who are at risk of aborting or abandoning their baby girls. This money helps the mother resist pressure to abort or abandon their baby girls.

Fight Forced Abortion: WRWF gives monthly stipends to help support women who are pregnant without a birth permit and are hiding or running to escape forced abortions.

Littlejohn stated, “We are defeating gendercide and forced abortion, one baby at a time. It’s astonishing how little money it takes to save a life. For example, one of our baby girls was born to poor farmers. Her father wanted a son and was pressuring his wife to leave the baby out in the field to die. A WRWF Field Worker called the mother, who said that if we would help her, she would keep the girl. WRWF began giving her a small monthly stipend. Her daughter has become an adorable girl and is now greatly loved by both her parents. Her mother told WRWF: ‘You saved my daughter’s life. Thanks to you and your organization.’”

The campaign also gives stipends to women who are fleeing forced abortions.

Find out more about the Save a Girl Campaign here:

http://womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=end-gendercide-and-forced-abortion

Read the Resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly – International Day of the Girl Child here:

http://srsg.violenceagainstchildren.org/document/a-res-66-170_535

Posted in China's One Child Policy, coerced abortion, Forced Abortion, gendercide, International Day of the Girl Child, One Child Policy, Reggie Littlejohn, Uncategorized, Women's Rights Without Frontiers | Comments Off

China Aid — Beware Naive Rumors: “The Chinese government has begun to ban forced abortions and forced sterilizations”

Posted on September 27, 2012 by Reggie Littlejohn

This fine analysis was posted by my colleagues at the China Aid Association today. Here’s the link to the original post.

Beware of Naive Rumors: “The Chinese government has begun to ban forced abortions and forced sterilizations”

http://www.chinaaid.org/2012/09/caa-beware-of-naive-rumors-chinese.html

CHINA AID ASSOCIATION 9/26/12

On September 12 and 13, 2012, All Girls Allowed, a US-based group that opposes China’s forced family planning policy and seeks to end it, sent out an English-language news release and a prayer letter saying that the Chinese government had begun to ban forced abortions and forced sterilizations. The response from many quarters after this news was released and picked up by media outlets was mostly expressions of doubt. Some organizations and experts have already made targeted rebuttals, and ChinaAid has also engaged in-depth discussions with All Girls Allowed (AGA), making it clear that it held a different view. In response, AGA’s founder and president Ms. Chai Ling made her case for insisting on the authenticity and accuracy of the news and the group’s investigations (see the links provided below to the news reports on this subject.)

ChinaAid believes that, although we look forward to the early end of the evil policy of forced family planning in China and although we respect and applaud Ms. Chai Ling’s important work and contributions in this endeavor, the tone of the AGA news release and the conclusion it draws lack the necessary and sufficient evidence; they are too naïve and jump to conclusions, and constitute an erroneous report that has seriously misguided and confused international opinion. At the same time, AGA has unintentionally acted in concert with the Chinese government’s propaganda efforts, beautifying the image of the family planning commissions and their officials, which will hurt innumerable victims of the forced family planning policy and weaken their courage to pursue justice and protect the dignity of human life.

The evidence cited by AGA are mainly the following:

1. On July 12 of this year, China’s National Population and Family Planning Commission held its semi-annual work conference on national population and family planning work, and director Ms. Wang Xia delivered a report in which she called [on family planning workers] “to guide the masses to practice family planning on their own initiative, [and] resolutely put an end to late-term induced labor [i.e. abortion]”

(See ChinaAid’s translation of excerpts of Ms. Wang Xia’s speech below. The Chinese version is available at http://www.chinapop.gov.cn/xwzx/zwyw/2012/201207/t20120719_391788.html ).

2. AGA telephoned a family planning official in the Chinese city of Chongqing to confirm this. She (or he) responded affirmatively, saying: the Chinese government has already issued a document to all family planning commissions banning forced abortions and forced sterilizations, which must be voluntarily decided upon by the parents themselves.

Hence, AGA’s analysis was, It’s clear that the July speech by Wang Xia, the head of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, was not just empty talk. A Chongqing official has said: “No more forced abortions.”

ChinaAid believes that the evidence cited by AGA are merely oral statements that have been put down on paper (the document has not even been sighted yet; it’s just hearsay), and there is no evidence yet of it being put into practice or of action having been taken. In other words, this is still nothing more than the propaganda of the Chinese government. Therefore, it should not be the basis upon which the conclusion is drawn that the Chinese government has already begun to ban forced abortions and forced sterilizations. These are our reasons:

1. Do not readily fall for the propaganda of the Chinese government. From 1944 to the present, the propaganda of China’s Communist Party-ruled government has been based on lies, mostly through deception, misleading, coercion and inducements, and brainwashing. According to a June 13, 1944 report in Liberation Daily, Mao Zedong said in response to questions from a group of foreign reporters: “Strong politics can only be built on freedom of speech, publication, assembly and association and on a democratically elected government.” Such moving words! As a leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square student movement, Ms. Chai Ling experienced the massacre [that ended the movement] and therefore should understand this better than most people and have a more unforgettable memory of it. At the time, didn’t the central government promise that “the government will not settle the score after the fact” and “students who took part in the June 4 movement will not be politically persecuted by the government,” etc., etc.? But what really happened? Furthermore, at least this much is clear: because of the political news with Chinese characteristics that exploded in Chongqing this year does anyone still believe the words of officials in Chongqing? And also, Chinese government propaganda for years has said that Chinese citizens fully enjoy human rights, freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of religion, etc. But don’t the large body of facts and data reported by ChinaAid in its annual reports on persecution of Christian churches unmask those lies for the whole world to see?

2. In her speech, National Population and Family Planning Commission director Wang Xia stressed that the national policy of family planning would be continued. The core message and central theme of Wang Xia’s speech is that the forced family planning [measures] of the past 30-plus years were correct. Hence, [she referred to] “the need to conscientiously sum up the achievements in population and family planning work and to be even more confident and resolute.” Moreover, [she said,] this is the political road that the Communist Party and the government has all along held to, saying “the Communist Party Central Committee and the State Council have always remained committed to strategically and comprehensively grasping and achieving a high level of understanding of population issues. Especially since reform and opening-up, they have always persisted in the comprehensive policy strategy of population and development in unwaveringly carrying out the basic national policy of family planning” so that “we have made great achievements in population control and family planning that have attracted world attention. Nationwide, births were reduced by more than 400 million babies (person)…” Please note here, this 400 million is truly a bloody figure.

3. Facts speak louder than words: According to news from mainland China in recent days, family planning measures are still being forcibly carried out and forced abortions are still being performed. Since forced family planning started in 1979, countless unborn babies have already been forcibly aborted and countless women have been forcibly sterilized and countless families have lost livestock and their homes due to heavy fines or because their houses have been demolished. Countless cadres have been removed or demoted because unapproved births have occurred in their jurisdictions. There also have been countless cadres who have been promoted because they brutally and bloodily implemented the family planning policy (for instance, Li Qun the former Party secretary of Linyi City who was widely regarded as the No. 1 blackhand in persecuting [blind human rights activist] Chen Guangcheng, is now the Party secretary of the city of Qingdao). But nowhere in China’s family planning law and local family planning regulations does it approve of [using] the measures of forced abortions or sterilizations. Yet, in reality, the government has always acted unhesitatingly in carrying out forced abortions and sterilizations. When Hu Jintao visited the United States in January 2011, Ms. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Congresswoman from Florida and chairman of House Committee on Foreign Affairs, referred to China’s forced family planning practices with a concern. President Hu Jintao immediately responded with a lie, “There are no forced abortions in China!”

4. As was true of the 1989 crackdown on the Tiananmen Square student movement, so it also is with the “national family planning policy”: it is an important and politically correct aim of the Chinese Communist Party in the Deng Xiaoping era. Therefore, to overturn the decision on the June 4th crackdown or to reverse the forced family planning policy is tantamount to admitting that the Chinese Communist Party has made serious mistakes since 1979 and it would also be tantamount to negating Deng Xiaoping. If the Chinese government were to ban forced abortions and forced sterilizations and require that the parents themselves choose, then the family planning policy would immediately fall apart. When that day comes, a major political transformation will have certainly emerged in China and Deng Xiaoping’s political era will be negated, just as the Communist government in the Deng Xiaoping era negated the Cultural Revolution of the Mao Zedong era. At any rate, in advance of this year’s 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, the opening date of which has not even been set yet, there is no reason yet to be so optimistic.

To sum up the four points above, it is our view that AGA has no conclusive evidence to believe that Wang Xia will put into practice that single sentence in her long-winded speech, even less is there any basis to believe that the words of that Chongqing official is proof that the Chinese government plans to ban forced abortions and sterilizations, even though we have reason to believe that there has been this kind of propagandizing and that such words were spoken—the objective was to deal with the international outcry and the international pressure [over China’s forced abortions]. Certainly, these changes in wording demand our close attention and should be encouraged because they demonstrate that international pressure and the rights defense movement in China on the family planning issue have already achieved results.

As is well-known to all, these serious repercussions and denunciations both internationally and domestically were triggered by the explosive news of several forced family planning scandals, including escape to the United States of Mr. Chen Guangcheng, the blind human rights lawyer from Linyi, Shandong province, the government’s forced abortion of the seven-month unborn baby of Feng Jianmei in Ankang, Shaanxi province, the government’s forced abortion of an eight-month unborn baby in Xianyou county, Fujian province, the government’s forced abortion of Hu Xia’s nearly eight-month unborn baby in Jianli county, Hubei province, etc. There was also Ms. Cao Ruyi from Changsha, Hunan province, who was five months pregnant when she was kidnapped by government cadres and taken to a hospital where they intended to force her to undergo an abortion. Fortunately, due to the efforts of ChinaAid, Chinese house churches and the international community, particularly the efforts of New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith, who protested in a letter to the Changsha government, she was spared.

Therefore, just because there has been some change in the propaganda of the Chinese government does not mean there will be actual changes in practice. People need to see actual actions and changes in the actual policy. Looking at Wang Xia’s speech, however, no movement of any kind is evident toward a ban on forced abortions and sterilizations, since she said: “[Of] first [importance] is to hold unwaveringly to family planning as an unchanging fundamental national policy and grasp firmly the paramount task of maintaining a stable low birth rate. Maintaining a stable low birth rate is the most important task in upholding and implementing the fundamental national policy of family planning, …” Here she emphasizes that maintaining a stable birth rate is the paramount task, that is, the paramount task of this “unchanging” fundamental national policy. But how is one to “hold unwaveringly to” and accomplish this paramount task? Are they relying on Chinese parents to voluntarily give up having a second child? No one would believe this, not even Wang Xia.

Below, we quote from the Xinhua News Agency, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, in a 1946 attack on the Kuomintang (the Nationalist Party governing China then):

“In the past 20 years, especially in recent years, we see every day that ‘only the magistrates can set fires while the commoners are not allowed to light their lamps.’ Setting aside for the moment the question of whether the government’s edicts are in the interest of the people, what really makes people angry is that the government doesn’t even abide by these kinds of edicts. Every day, the government wants the people to abide by the law and yet the government itself violates the law every day. Such behavior is miles removed from the concept of ‘democracy.’ Whether the democracy advocates are genuine or fakes, we are too humble to comment. Let us first see what percentage of the government’s empty promises of democracy has it actually honored. If they do not honor the words written in blank ink on white paper, what more is there to say? Therefore, before holding the political consultative conference, we would first like to ask them to keep their promise. We hope that by doing this small thing that it ought to do, the government can show the people that it is trustworthy.”—Xinhua Daily. February 1, 1946.

We can’t help but ask, next month it will be 63 years since the Communist Party founded the People’s Republic of China, but has it kept its promises? It’s already been more than 20 years since the Kuomintang government in Taiwan honored its promise.

Likewise, director Wang Xia of the National Population and Family Planning Commission of P. R. China in her July speech called for “resolutely put[ing] an end to late-term induced labor [abortions].” So let’s just wait and see, see when they will bring this to pass.

Lies themselves are nothing to be afraid of, but believing in lies and naïvely spreading them is definitely cause for concern.

In view of this, ChinaAid expresses its deep regret and unease, and strongly urges AGA to release a corrected statement so as to redeem itself for having publicly misled people.

Let’s be united in continuing to expose the brutality of the forced family planning policy, to bring comfort to and to support the victims who are bravely using the law to protect that most basic of human rights, the right to reproduce. At the same time, let’s look to the Lord Jesus Christ for grace and help to bring to an early end this end this ignorant and evil national policy that is disastrous for both the country and the people.

Links to English-language news reports:

http://www.allgirlsallowed.org/ChinaEndsLatetermForcedAbortions

http://www.christianpost.com/news/chinese-govt-calls-for-end-to-forced-abortions-after-intl-outcry-81606/

http://www.christianpost.com/news/china-has-not-banned-forced-abortion-groups-insist-81829/

http://www.lifenews.com/2012/09/17/chinese-government-has-not-banned-forced-abortions-despite-reports/

http://www.allgirlsallowed.org/update-chinese-government%E2%80%99s-document-banning-late-term-forced-abortion

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctliveblog/archives/2012/09/advocacy-groups-disagree-china-ban-one-child-policy-forced-abortions.html

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/religion/forced-abortions-continue-china-china-expert-steven-mosher-says

The Chinese version of the ChinaAid Editorial is here: http://www.chinaaid.net/2012/09/blog-post_7110.html

The 2012 National Semi-Annual Work Conference on Population and Family Planning Opens

http://www.chinapop.gov.cn/xwzx/zwyw/2012/201207/t20120719_391788.html

July 19, 2012 Source: China Population News Translated by China Aid Association

Liberate the mind, deepen reform, boost confidence

Promote the sustainable and healthy development of the cause of population and family planning

Speech by Wang Xia. Gou Qingming, Wang Peian, Cui Li, Chen Li, Yang Yuxue and Jiang Fan in attendance

The 2012 National Semi-Annual Work Conference on Population and Family Planning opened on July 19 in Beijing. The conference’s main tasks were: to carry out and implement a series of Party Central Committee arrangements regarding effective nationwide population and family planning in the new era, which center on the comprehensive implementation of the program in the 12th Five-Year Plan for population growth and for population and family planning work, to sum up work achievements, to analyze the current situation, deepen the development of ideas, nail down the key tasks, to further liberate the mind, to deepen reform, to strengthen our confidence and to promote the sustainable and healthy development of the work of population and family planning. Wang Xia, minister of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, delivered a semi-annual work report. Attending the conference were: Gou Qingming, head of the disciplinary inspection group of the Communist Party Central Committee’s Disciplinary Inspection Commission assigned to the National Population and Family Planning Commission; National Population and Family Planning Commission vice ministers Wang Peian, Cui Li and Chen Li; Yang Yuxue, vice president of the standing committee of the Chinese Family Planning Association; and Jiang Fan, president of the Research Institute of Family Planning and Reproductive Health.

Since the beginning of this year, solid progress has been made in the various priority tasks of the population and family planning system and phased results have been achieved. Leadership efforts have been enhanced and smooth progress has been made on major projects; some new breakthroughs have been achieved on some difficult problems, basic work at the grass-roots level has been consolidated, and building up work style has been further strengthened; thus laying a solid foundation for realizing the annual work goals and promoting the implementation of the 12th Five-Year Plan.

Wang Xia pointed out in her speech the need to conscientiously sum up the achievements in population and family planning work and to be even more confident and resolute. The Communist Party Central Committee and the State Council have always remained committed to strategically and comprehensively grasping and achieving a high level of understanding of population issues. Especially since reform and opening-up, they have always persisted in the comprehensive policy strategy of population and development in unwaveringly carrying out the basic national policy of family planning. We have made great achievements in population control and family planning that have attracted world attention. Nationwide, births were reduced by more than 400 million babies, creating a relatively long period of a population “dividend” when total expenditure on child raising is comparatively low and savings rates are relatively high. This is effective in relieving the pressure the population growth exerts on natural resources and the environment, greatly. It has greatly improved the conditions for existence and development of all the people in this country, and is an important contribution to reform and opening-up and rapid economic and social growth that is indelible. It has also laid a solid foundation for good overall success in population and family planning work in the new era.

Wang Xia emphasized the need to clearly see the new situation we face and further strengthen our sense of responsibility and sense of calling. First, is the need for a profound understanding of the basis of the impact that population changes in the new era are having on the transformation of social and economic development. The overall transformation of China’s population growth is concomitant with the transformation of China’s economic and social development; hence, demographic issues must be addressed within the larger context of the overall economic and social development, and there must be a profound understanding of the important role of population growth on economic and social development. Not only does resolving practical problems need to be emphasized, but strategic research must also be strengthened, by using new ways of thinking to crack various problems and by striving to enhance the ability to explore and use regular patterns and science in policy decisions. Second is to have a profound understanding of the objective requirements that strengthening of and innovations in social management will have on the management of population services as a whole. Population growth must become the foundation of the various resources for integrating the national economy, gradually perfecting the “people-oriented” policy for management of population services and establishing a management system for population services that is compatible with social patterns. Strengthening of and innovations in social management must occur unceasingly at the source, attaching importance to the effect that population-based management has on its supporting role in formulating the policies for perfecting people’s livelihoods, establishing a comprehensive population service mechanism guided by demographics-based information, paying close attention to the link between interactive sharing of demographic information and basic public services in urban and rural areas, and strengthening the monitoring and early-warning forecasting of population growth. Third is to have a profound understanding of the inherent demands that establishing a service-oriented government will have on accelerating the transformation of the function of population service management. We should stick to the principle of “people first,” making equal access to basic public services the goal and guided by the public’s needs and the needs of economic and social development, to create a new structure of social pluralism in collaborative governance by strengthening pro-active service and overall coordination. At the same time, the idea of investing in people first should be adopted, establishing a system of sound population growth policy and allocating more public resources to areas that are directly related to comprehensive human development and the improvement of people’s livelihood. A sense of purpose and service awareness must be firmly established, areas of service must be constantly expanded, management must brought into the providing of services, and our ability to make service policy decisions, to serve the grassroots and to serve the masses must be strengthened. Fourth, we should have a profound understanding of the problems and shortcomings in our current population and family planning work. We must be vigilant in peacetime, boost our confidence and push ourselves so as to effectively improve our overall quality and our work performance.

Wang Xia called for thinking and understanding to be unified and further clarification of the important work to be firmly grasped. The first is to hold unwaveringly to family planning as an unchanging fundamental national policy and to grasp firmly the paramount task of maintaining a stable low birth rate. Maintaining a stable low birth rate is the most important task in upholding and implementing the fundamental national policy of family planning, as well as the basis and premise for achieving good overall results in population work and a comprehensive resolution to the population problem. Work at the grassroots level in both urban and rural areas must be comprehensively strengthened by identifying and rectifying the shortcomings, establishing sound work systems in urban and rural areas, perfecting long-term work mechanisms and accelerating the achievement of full coverage of excellent family planning services. Organizational leadership should be further strengthened and duties should be fulfilled; earnestly do a good job in key locales and among key people-groups to promote transformation of the work in backward areas. Hold fast to using propaganda as a guiding force and the combining of law-abiding administration with [the lure of] benefits to guide the masses to practice family planning on their own initiative, resolutely put an end to late-term induced labor [i.e. abortion] and resolutely avoid triggering malevolent cases through illegal administrative actions. Sternly investigate by following regulations and adhering to discipline the problem of unapproved births among Party members and cadres and the rich and famous, so as to create a social atmosphere that is conducive to population and family planning work.

(ChinaAid: The Translation is on going and a complete version will be updated soon)

ChinaAid Contacts
Bob Fu, President | Mark Shan, Spokesperson
Tel: 1+ (888) 889-7757 | Cell: (267) 205-5210
Email: Bob@ChinaAid.org | Mark@ChinaAid.org

Posted in All Girls Allowed, Bob Fu, China Aid Association, China's One Child Policy, coerced abortion, Forced Abortion, forced sterilization, One Child Policy, Uncategorized | Comments Off

China’s Brutal One Child Policy Turns 32 Today: An Open Letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao

Posted on September 25, 2012 by Reggie Littlejohn

Dear President Hu Jintao:

As you know, today is the tragic 32^nd anniversary of the official institution of China’s brutal One Child Policy, which has caused incalculable suffering to the women and families of China.

Feng Jianmei, for example, was forcibly aborted at seven months when she and her husband, Deng Jiyuan, could not pay a 40,000 yuan fine ($6300). Officials of Ankang City, Shaanxi Province, tried to force Feng into a car, but she escaped to her aunt’s house. They broke through the gate, so she fled to the mountains, where officials found her hiding under a bed. After forcibly aborting her baby, officials laid the bloody body of her dead daughter next to her in the bed. The story and photograph immediately went viral, sent shockwaves around the world, and ignited a firestorm of outrage.

Our hearts go out to the victims of forced abortion and their families. The coercive enforcement of China’s cruel and barbaric One Child Policy causes more violence towards women and girls than any other official policy on earth. It is China’s war against women and girls. Women are forcibly aborted up to the ninth month of pregnancy. Forced abortion is not a choice. It is systematic, institutionalized violence against women, official government rape; and it continues to this day. Women’s Rights Without Frontiers urges you to put an end to this hideous crime against humanity.

Feng Jianmei is not alone. Several other cases of coercion have emerged in the past year:

Lijing County, Shandong Province. October 12, 2011. Jihong Ma died during a forced abortion, six months pregnant. Due to the trauma of being seized by Family Planning Officials, she had been placed on oxygen. In the words of a family member:

“More than ten persons from the Family Planning Bureau came, took off the oxygen mask from her and forced her to induce labor. From the time she was put into operating room at 4:00 p.m., there was no news about her . . . At night around 10:00 p.m., someone came, opened the door of the delivery room and slipped away. We ran into the delivery room and saw that the doctors and nurses all disappeared while poor Jihong Ma’s body had already been totally freezing cold, with purple lips and bleeding nose, lying on the operating table without any movement.”

Linyi City, Shandong Province. March 2012. A photo of a forcibly aborted full term baby drowned in a bucket, submitted anonymously, circulated on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, and in the West. The infant reportedly cried at birth, but was drowned in a bucket by family planning personnel.

Huangqiao Town, Jishui County, Jiangxi Province. March 2012. A 46-year-old woman was forcibly sterilized, in retaliation for bringing a petition. The woman posted the following account on the internet:

On March 14, my husband was being escorted back from making a petition. To retaliate for his petition, the town government sent more than 20 strong men. I could no longer give birth to a child at that time, but they still dragged my legs, treated me like an animal, and forcibly performed a tubal ligation on the operating table of the Family Planning Office. Guoqing Luo (the Deputy Town Secretary) also exclaimed, “The Government takes the consequences! The Government has the money!”

Cao Ruyi, Changsha City, Hunan Province. June 2012 and ongoing. Five months pregnant, Cao Ruyi was detained by Family Planning Officials, who beat her husband and attempted to forcibly abort her. They demanded that she pay the Chinese equivalent of approximately $24,000, or face forced abortion. Because of international pressure, this amount was reduced and Cao was allowed to leave the hospital, but she remains in jeopardy.

Hu Jia, Jianli County, Hubei Province. June 19, 2012. China’s Southern Metropolis Daily reported that Hu Jia was forcibly aborted at nearly eight months. This case was reported by a major Chinese newspaper, indicating the growing discontent with the policy inside China and the courage of the Chinese news media to report it.

Chen Guangcheng. Not only are women oppressed, but so are those who try to defend them. Blind activist lawyer Chen Guangcheng exposed the widespread and systematic use of forced abortions and involuntary sterilizations in Linyi County in 2005. The Chinese Communist Party imprisoned Chen for four years and three months. They then kept him and his family under strict house arrest from September, 2010 until his dramatic escape. Chen arrived in the United States on May 19, 2012.

Catastrophic Financial Penalties. Forced abortion and sterilization are not the only way that the One Child Policy devastates families. The often excessive fines paid by couples to save an “out of plan” pregnancy are used to line the pockets of family planning and other officials. These fines can reach up to ten times a person’s annual salary. Job loss is another form of financial coercion and can be catastrophic. In March 2012, the head of the Chemistry Department at Renmin University in Beijing jumped to his death because he was accused of having a second child and threatened with being “discharged from public employment.” Meanwhile, officials are promoted or demoted based on whether they meet birth, abortion and sterilization quotas.

Professor Commits Suicide Over Violating China’s One-Child Policy

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/professor-commits-suicide-for-violating-china-s-one-child-policy-272556.html

Jackie Sheehan, “Cruel Cut,” South China Morning Post, 7/25/12

http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/blog/?p=752

European Parliament. 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. 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.

UNFPA and IPPF. It is significant that the European Parliament has acknowledged that it provides funding for family planning in China. For decades, the UNFPA and International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) have worked hand in hand with the Chinese population control machine, which is coercive. They are funded by many nations, not only in Europe but the world over, including the United States. WRWF has no doubt that any unbiased investigation by the European Parliament or any other governmental body will reveal that these organizations are complicit with coercive family planning in China.

Chinese Group Calls for Abolition of One Child Policy. In the wake of the case of Feng Jianmei, a prominent group of scholars has criticized the policy on the basis that it violates human rights and works against economic stability. Fifteen brave intellectuals signed an open letter urging that re-writing of family planning law was “imperative.” One of their leaders, well-known Internet entrepreneur James Liang, called for the abolition of the one-child rule.

Below my signature are links to our video and petition to stop forced abortion in China.

President Hu, you are in a unique position to stop this violence. As you prepare to leave office later this year, may the end of the One Child Policy be your legacy to the Chinese people.

Sincerely,

Reggie Littlejohn, President

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers

www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org

Stop Forced Abortion – China’s War on Women! (49,000 views)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjtuBcJUsjY

Petition to stop forced abortion in China (21,000 signatures) http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=sign_our_petition

Posted in coerced abortion, European Parliament, Feng Jianmei, Forced Abortion, forced sterilization, Hu Jintao, IPPF, One Child Policy, Planned Parenthood, pro-choice, pro-life, rape, Uncategorized, UNFPA, Women's Rights Without Frontiers | 3 Comments

Forced Abortions Continue in China, Steven Mosher Says

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Reggie Littlejohn

“Reports that the Chinese Party-State has ended its practice of forcibly aborting women pregnant in violation of the one-child policy are premature,” says Steven Mosher, President of the Population Research Institute.

Mosher, who blew the whistle on forced abortions in China back in 1980, points out that “The Chinese Party-State has asserted for over three decades that the one-child policy is ‘entirely voluntary.’ But this assertion of ‘voluntarism’ is no more true now than it was when I saw women who were five, seven, and even nine months pregnant held down on the operating table and aborted. Women continue to be arrested, aborted, and sterilized against their will at this very moment.”

The claim that China has ended its cruel and inhuman practice of forced abortions originates with All Girls Allowed (AGA), which reached this conclusion after learning that a Chinese government “document [was issued] to Family Planning offices that bans forced abortion and sterilization.”

“I do not doubt that such a document was issued,” maintains Mosher. “Indeed, I expected that the Chinese government would engage in exactly this kind of damage control. After all, the recent spate of adverse publicity generated by blind activist Chen Guangcheng’s flight into exile, and Feng Jianmei’s brutal forced abortion at seven months gestation, has made hundreds of millions of people around the world and inside of China aware of its crimes against humanity. The Chinese Party-State, which is responsible for such criminal acts, has lost face, and is now trying recover.”

“Coercion will continue,” Mosher went on. “How will officials successfully extort huge fines from women and their families for violating the one-child policy if they can’t threaten women with forced abortion and sterilization for not paying up?

This latest document will no more end forced abortion that did the 2002 Population and Family Planning Law of the People’s Republic of China, Article 4 of which directed population control officials to “enforce the law in a civil manner, and [they may] not infringe upon legitimate rights and interests of citizens.”

Forced abortions and other abuses won’t end,” notes Mosher, “until the Chinese Party-State not only abandons the one-child policy, but abandons its Maoist-Marxist belief that it has the right to control the reproduction of human beings under a state plan.

Posted in Steven Mosher | Comments Off

Despite Recent Report, Chinese Government Has NOT BANNED Forced Abortion

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Reggie Littlejohn

On September 13, All Girls Allowed (AGA) sent out a press release with the bold title, “Chinese Government Bans Forced Abortion.” We wish we could agree with our colleagues at AGA. Unfortunately, this time, we cannot.

AGA’s claim that “the Chinese Government issued a document to Family Planning offices that bans forced abortion and sterilization” is based on links to two Chinese documents and a call to a family planning official in Chonqing City. The press release states, “What the officer in Chonqing said was incredible. Not only did they ban forced abortion, but the change came from the top down: “Earlier the government issued a document to all family planning committees,” he said. “Everyone has received it.” The AGA press release touted this statement as “a major change” and stated, with respect to the One Child Policy, “its days are numbered.”

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers has no doubt that forced abortions continue to happen at this very moment in China. When the message goes out that this is nolonger happening, it undermines the movement to stop it.

Considering the facts set forth in the AGA press release, WRWF reaches the opposite conclusion: The Chinese Government has NOT BANNED forced abortion. Until proven otherwise, we believe that any rhetoric generated by the Chinese Communist Party ostensibly banning forced abortion is propaganda designed to deflect the heat generated by the notorious forced abortion at seven months of Feng Jianmei in June 2012. Here’s why:

1) Forced abortion has long been officially “banned” in China, yet it happens all the time.

In January 2011, Chinese President Hu Jintao told Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen that China has no forced abortion policy, yet numerous cases of forced abortion have surfaced since that time. In addition, Article 4 of The Population and Family Planning Law of the People’s Republic of China already protects against forced abortion. It states that Family Planning Officials shall “enforce the law in a civil manner, and they may not infringe upon legitimate rights and interests of citizens.” http://www.gov.cn/english/laws/2005-10/11/content_75954.htm This law is not worth the paper it is written on. Many credible reports of forced abortion have surfaced since this law was promulgated in 2002. To see examples from 2012, read WRWF’s Complaint to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/blog/?p=717

2) The documents cited in the AGA press release do not support the conclusion that the Chinese government has banned forced abortion.

Both documents mention a ban on late-term forced abortion only. They are silent on early and mid-term forced abortion, and therefore do not ban such forced abortions. Further, both documents take the position that late-term abortions must be voluntary. The Chinese Communist Party, however, already insists that abortions must be “voluntary,” and forced abortion is still practiced. In April 2012, for example, Pan Chunyan was grabbed out of her grocery store and forced to place her thumbprint on a document authorizing her abortion at eight months of pregnancy. Does this count as “voluntary” under the Policy?

These documents do not cite any penalty for breaking the “ban” on forced abortion. Nor do these documents discuss what will happen to women who are more than six months pregnant, but who cannot or will not pay the often impossible fines. To the contrary, both documents extol the virtues of the One Child Policy. To read English translations of these documents, scroll down.

3) The documents cited in the AGA press release do not remove the financial or structural incentives that keep forced abortion in place.

The often excessive fines paid by couples to save an “out of plan” pregnancy are used to feather the pockets of family planning and other officials. These fines can reach up to ten times a person’s annual salary. Job loss is another form of financial coercion and can be catastrophic. In March 2012, the head of the Chemistry Department at Renmin University in Beijing jumped to his death because he was accused of having a second child and threatened with being “discharged from public employment.” Meanwhile, officials are promoted or demoted based on whether they meet birth, abortion and sterilization quotas.

Professor Commits Suicide Over Violating China’s One-Child Policy

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/professor-commits-suicide-for-violating-china-s-one-child-policy-272556.html

Jackie Sheehan, “Cruel Cut,” South China Morning Post, 7/25/12

http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/blog/?p=752

Clicking the “read more” link on the AGA press release and scrolling down will reveal that the release eventually mentions the fact that the documents cited are silent on the issue of early and mid-term forced abortions, and do not address the issue of “huge fines” as a form of coercion. These nuances, however, were predictably lost in the blast of the sensational headline.

Conclusion

WRWF agrees that pressure is mounting to end forced abortion in China. However, to announce that the Chinese government has already banned it is, in our opinion, premature and inaccurate. We need to keep the pressure on, not celebrate propaganda designed to take the pressure off.

Sign a petition to end forced abortion here.

http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=sign_our_petition

Watch a video about forced abortion in China here.
Stop Forced Abortion – China’s War on Women! Video (4 mins)

http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/?nav=stop-forced-abortion

Here are English translations of the Chinese documents referenced by AGA.

2012 Semi-Annual Working Conference

On National Population and Family Planning

July 20, 2012

The original Chinese document can be found here:
http://www.chinapop.gov.cn/xwzx/zwyw/2012/201207/t20120719_391788.html

English translation:
On July 19, the National Population and Family Planning held its semi-annual work conference in Beijing. The main tasks of this conference are: implementing a series of deployment on carrying out the family planning in the new period, focusing on the “12th Five-Year Population Development Plan” and the “Development Plan on Population and Family Planning,” summarizing achievements, analyzing current situation, deepening understanding of development, clarifying key tasks, further liberating ideas, deepening China’s reform, facilitating the development of the population and family planning in a sustained and healthy way. The Minister of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, Wang Xia made the semi-annual report. Gou Qingming, Resident Discipline Inspection Team Leader to NPFPC, Wang Peian, Cui Li, Chen Li, Vice Ministers of NPFPC, Yang Yuxue, Executive Vice President of China Family Planning Association, Jiang Fan, President of the Society of Family Planning and Reproductive Health, attended the meeting.

Since this year, all the major works of population and family planning have made solid progress, and initial achievements have been made. Intensified supervision has been increased, all the major projects are progressing smoothly, breakthroughs have been made with a number of difficult issues, the work at grassroots has become more consolidated and the good style of the construction work has been further strengthened. All of these works have laid a solid foundation for fulfilling the targets of the whole year and pushing forward the implementation of the “12th Five-Year Plan.”

In her speech, Minister Wang Xia pointed out that we should conscientiously sum up the experiences of successes in population and family planning work, and be more steadfast with our confidence and determinations. The Party Central Committee and the State Council have always understood and addressed the population issue from a strategic and integral elevation. Especially since the reform and opening up policy, the decision making has been practiced in a comprehensive manner, embracing both population and development, and the basic national policy of family planning has been persistently carried out. As a result, the population and family planning work of our country has achieved remarkable success that is recognized by the world. Four hundred million births were prevented and a prolonged condition of high population dividend, in which there is a low population dependent ratio and a high saving ratio, was created. This has effectively alleviated the pressure of population growth on resources and environment, tremendously improved conditions of living and development and made indelible contributions to the reforms and opening up and the rapid social and economic development. These successes have also laid a solid foundation for better implementation of the population and family planning program in the new era.

Wang Xia emphasized that we should understand our new situation and further enhance the sense of responsibility and the sense of mission.

First, we should understand the impact from the population changes to the basis of the transformation of the economic and social development in the new era. The overall transformation of the development of China’s population is accompanied by the transformation of China’s economic and social development. We must put the population problem into the pattern of economic and social development as a whole. We should understand that the population development is very important to the economic and social development. We should not only focus on addressing the real problem, but also strengthen the strategic research. We should crack various problems with a new way of thinking, and enhance the ability to explore the use of the law and scientific decision-making. Population development is the basis for the integration of the national economy and all kinds of resources. We should gradually improve “people-oriented” service management policies, establish a service management system to adapt to the large population and social pattern. We should continue strengthening social management, we should pay attention to the supporting role of population-based management to improving the people’s livelihood policy, we should build up a population-based information service mechanism, we should focus on the interaction of demographic information sharing and the urban-rural basic public services convergence, we should strengthen the monitoring development and early warning and forecast on population. We should have a profound understanding of the requirement of service-oriented government building for accelerating the transformation of the population service management functions. We should adhere to the principle of “people-oriented,” in order to achieve the aim of the equalization of basic public services; public demand and economic development, social development should be our guide. We should strengthen active service and co-ordination, form a new pattern of social pluralism collaborative governance. At the same time, we should establish the concept of putting investment in people first, establish a healthy population policy system, and assign more public resources to improving people’s livelihood. We should firmly establish the sense of purpose and a sense of service, continue to expand service areas, focus management on services and enhance services decision-making, the grassroots services, the ability to serve people. Fourth, we should have a profound understanding of the problems and shortcomings of the current population and family planning work. We should be vigilant, increase confidence, be self-pressurized, and effectively improve the overall quality and level of work.

Wang Xia said we should unify our thinking, clarify the key tasks. First, always adhere to the basic national policy of family planning, which is a fundamental task, effectively stabilize the low birth rate, the primary task at present. Stabilizing the low birth rate is a primary task. It’s imperative to strengthen the grassroots work in urban and rural areas, establish and improve the urban and rural working system, improve the long-term working mechanism, accelerate the realization of the full coverage of Family Planning Services. We should further strengthen the organization and leadership, assign responsibilities, implement carefully the deployment in the key areas and key groups, promote the transformation of backward areas. We should adhere to the combination of advocacy, law-based administration and interest orientation. We should guide the people to implement family planning voluntarily, absolutely stop performing late-term abortions, absolutely stop vicious cases due to illegal administration. Seriously follow the rules to investigate and deal with the problem of party members, cadres, rich and famous persons, create a good social atmosphere for family planning work.

Second, the construction of population information is the key for solving the population problem. We should improve the working mechanism of the information technology; put the population information construction to the top of our priority. Conscientiously implement the population integrated management information system project, accelerate the construction of the full population information database, strengthen top-level design, [implement] uniform standards and build a unified information platform. Population and Family Planning Commissions of all provinces/autonomous regions/municipalities and of cities should follow the standard of the national platform. We should take the grassroots communities as our base, further improve the population registration and statistics system, speed up the sharing of information resources, further improve the collection and sharing system, and build a dynamic update mechanism. We should strengthen information, comprehensive development and utilization, build a full demographic information platform to provide a reference for scientific decision-making of the Party committees, governments and relevant departments, and provide information to improve the level of population service management.

Third, gradually improve the legal and policy system. We should accelerate research to establish the population development policy system, and implement the incentive fees for one-child parents. In accordance with the requirements of the central authorities, in conjunction with relevant departments, [we should] step up the policy of supporting the population of the study and the national main functional area planning, further promote and improve relevant laws and regulations.

Fourth, strengthen family planning public service system. [We should] seriously study the range of population and family planning of basic public services, projects, key tasks, explore realistic modes, and establish basic public services and improve family planning implementation mechanisms. [We should] study and develop and promote the implementation of the 12th Five-Year Plan of the family planning service system. [We should] fight for the standardization public service facilities for each county. Pay more attention to the management of the specification of the service agencies, improve public education, technical services, eugenics guidance, contraceptive distribution, information consultation and follow-up services, reproductive health, training of personnel, improvement of service quality. Take the implementation of the national free pre-pregnancy health check of the eugenics project as an opportunity, to further consolidate and enhance the population and family planning public service system level. [We should] actively seek the attention and support of the Party committees, governments and relevant departments to ensure the stability of the grassroots institutions and team. [We should] enhance the overall capacity of the workforce, strengthen personnel training and incentives to strengthen building a professional style. We should be politically reliable, with multi-job experience, reasonable structure, creativity, hard work and honesty.

Fifth, we should research large projects and large investment to improve the development of Population and Family Planning. We should build a large project for our large population. This is our important criterion to measure the performance for each unit. This is also an important assessment for our year-end appraisal. We should strengthen the project awareness, reserve a number of large projects, and lay the foundation for a big investment.

Sixth, we should uphold and improve the responsibility system of management by objectives. We should improve the examination content, set up scientific assessment indicators and a target system, and explore the establishment of an assessment index system to adapt to the characteristics of the eastern, central and western [regions]. We should improve assessment methods to reduce examination times, alleviate the burden for the grassroots, and guide the grassroots to work effectively. We should build an exam application system and teach our team discipline.

Wang Peian made a speech in conclusion. He pointed out that the meeting had a clear theme, further unified our thinking and understanding, and encouraged our team. We should learn this report and make our own work plan, strengthen the work of guidance and push forward the work in the second half of the year, greet the 18th National Party Congress with our outstanding achievements.

Participants to the Conference conducted earnest discussions on how to do a good job under current situations, while focusing on studying and understanding the spirit of the report by Minister Wang Xia. They also put up very good ideas and suggestions. Liaison officials from concurrent commissioner units — which are the General Office of the State Council, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Health and the National Bureau of Statistics, Directors-General (Secretaries of Party Lead Group) and Directors of Office of Population and Family Planning Commissions of all provinces/autonomous regions/municipalities and of cities with independent planning status and the Xinjiang Construction Corps, Directors of Office of the Family Planning Leading Groups of the People’s Liberation Army and the People’s Armed Police, responsible officials of the Population and Family Planning Offices of Organs Directly under Party Central Committee and Central Governmental Organs, principal responsible official of all Departments of NPFPC and all institutions affiliated to NPFPC — participated in the Conference.

Chongqing City Bans Late-Term Abortions and Prohibits Forced Sterilizations

August 31, 2012

Link to Original Chinese Document:
http://cq.qq.com/a/20120901/000001.htm

Translation:

On August 30, the Population and Family Planning Commission of Chongqing municipal government held a news conference on the 10th anniversary of the implementation of the law “Population and Family Planning,” the government said that the city’s population and family planning services have constantly improved in recent years. “Sunshine IPPF” received remarkable results. The citizens enjoy the right of information of the right of selection [of contraceptive method]. “Late-term induction of labor” is strictly prohibited.

Sunshine IPPF has covered the districts of the city, unified content, form and timing of population and family planning information in the cities, counties, towns and villages. People can learn the regulations and the implementation of the family planning policy through television.

At the same time, the city has fully launched an action to introduce contraceptive knowledge. People can choose the contraceptive methods they like. People who take long-term contraceptive methods get a reward from the service sector. In addition, the mandatory ring ligation is strictly prohibited. It requires the parties signing an agreement before proceeding induction of labor. The spokesman of Municipal Population and Family Planning Commission said, the city strictly prohibits the “late-term” induction of labor, there was no case like Shaanxi Ankang — 7-month pregnant mother was forced to abort occurred in our city. According to regulations, more than six months pregnancy is “late-term” pregnancy.

It is learned that the city has a family planning reward and a special reward. The local government has an additional family planning reward. If qualified, one-son/two-daughters parents can apply for 1080 yuan per year; one-daughter parents can apply for 1560 yuan; one-child-died parents can apply for 3120 yuan as special assistance; one-child-disability parents can apply for 2760 yuan per year.

Posted in abortion, Feng Jianmei, Forced Abortion, forced sterilization, Human Rights, One Child Policy, reproductive health, reproductive rights, right to choose, Uncategorized, Women's Rights Without Frontiers | 1 Comment