{"id":1524,"date":"2014-07-22T00:45:03","date_gmt":"2014-07-22T00:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/?p=1524"},"modified":"2014-07-22T14:58:03","modified_gmt":"2014-07-22T14:58:03","slug":"vatican-magazine-names-reggie-littlejohn-among-top-10-people-of-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/vatican-magazine-names-reggie-littlejohn-among-top-10-people-of-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Vatican Magazine Names Reggie Littlejohn Among “Top 10 People of 2013”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Reggie<\/a>

Reggie Littlejohn Meets Pope Francis during the 2013 MaterCare International Conference in Rome. Photo Courtesy of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers<\/p><\/div>\n

(CNA\/EWTN News) – Reggie Littlejohn, known for her work opposing forced abortion and gendercide in China, has been named as one of \u201cInside the Vatican\u2019s\u201d \u201cTop 10 People of 2013\u201d for her heroic efforts in helping women.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis honor came as a complete shock to me.\u00a0 I did not even know that I was being considered for this,\u201d Littlejohn told CNA in a Feb. 5 interview, adding that \u201cIt\u2019s a bit overwhelming to have my photo on the front cover with two Popes, surrounded by the other \u2018Top Ten\u2019 people from all over the world, all of whom seem far more heroic than I!\u201d<\/p>\n

Littlejohn is the founder and president of \u201cWomen\u2019s Rights Without Frontiers,\u201d an international coalition aimed at exposing forced abortion, gendercide, and sexual slavery in China.<\/p>\n

In addition to her advocacy for China’s women, Littlejohn also led the international effort to free Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng, who arrived in the United States in May, 2012.<\/p>\n

Alongside her nomination for \u201cInside the Vatican,\u201d a monthly magazine relating to topics within the Roman Curia, Littlejohn is also slated to receive the \u201cCardinal John J. O\u2019Connor Pro-Life Award\u201d from Legatus on Feb. 7, which is a membership organization for top-ranking Catholic business leaders.<\/p>\n

Responding the organization\u2019s declaration of her \u201cextraordinary witness and heroic actions in defense of the unborn,\u201d Littlejohn emphasized that \u201cthe true heroes are the women in China who are running to escape a forced abortion, or who are refusing to abort their babies just because they are girls.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is on behalf of these heroic women that I will accept this award,\u201d she stated, repeating that they are the \u201ctrue heroes in this battle against coercive population control in China.\u201d<\/p>\n

On behalf of her organization, Littlejohn expressed that \u201cwe are very grateful to \u2018Inside the Vatican\u2019 for raising the visibility of the work of \u2018Women\u2019s Rights Without Frontiers\u2019 in China.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can feel like such a lonely battle, and every new report of a forced abortion or sterilization can be discouraging,\u201d she continued, adding that \u201cthis accolade has given us some much-needed encouragement to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Highlighting the fact that many people believe China\u2019s \u201cbrutal\u201d one-child policy is coming to an end, Littlejohn affirmed that \u201cthis is untrue,\u201d explaining that the policy has merely been \u201cadjusted to allow couples have a second child if either parent is an only child.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite this adjustment, Littlejohn emphasized that \u201ceven these couples will still need a Birth Permit for each child,\u201d and that \u201cwithout this government-issued Permit, the pregnancy is illegal and the mother is at high risk of forced abortion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The high amount of \u201cspeculation that the sex-selective abortion and abandonment of baby girls will decrease\u201d due to the law\u2019s adjustment is \u201cunwarranted,\u201d Littlejohn noted, observing that \u201cgendercide\u201d is actually \u201cincreasing\u201d in both China and India.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil we have reliable statistics demonstrating that the gender ratios are equalizing, any declaration that gendercide is subsiding is premature.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the meantime,\u201d she said, \u201cwe need to continue the battle to save baby girls for being targeted for termination.\u201d<\/p>\n

In order to do this, Littlejohn revealed that her organization has \u201can underground network of fieldworkers\u201d in China, who, when they learn of a woman that is planning to abort or abandon her child because it is a girl, go to the mother an council her to keep her daughter.<\/p>\n

Noting that her organization offers the mothers \u201csupport for a year,\u201d Littlejohn explained that \u201cwe have about a 95% success rate,\u201d and that \u201cwomen will keep their daughters with our help and support.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I look at the faces of the girls we are saving in China \u2013 I can\u2019t even describe how I feel.\u00a0 It\u2019s what gets me up in the morning!\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the work she does through her organization, Littlejohn and her husband have also taken into their home the two daughters of dissident Zhang Lin, a pro-democracy activist imprisoned last year for protesting the Chinese government’s actions in detaining his 10-year-old daughter, Anni, and denying her the right to go to school, and are \u201craising them as a part\u201d of their \u201cfamily.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the original CNA\/EWTN article by Elise Harris here:
\nWomen’s rights activist among ‘Top 10’ of Vatican magazine\u00a0 February 6, 2014
\nhttp:\/\/www.ewtnnews.com\/catholic-news\/Vatican.php?id=9301<\/a><\/p>\n

Read the original article from Inside the Vatican<\/em> Magazine here:
\nReggie Littlejohn — A graduate of Yale Law School and Founder and President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, January 24, 2014
\nhttp:\/\/insidethevatican.com\/magazine\/people\/reggie-littlejohn-graduate-yale-law-school-founder-president-womens-rights-without-frontiers<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(CNA\/EWTN News) – Reggie Littlejohn, known for her work opposing forced abortion and gendercide in China, has been named as one of \u201cInside the Vatican\u2019s\u201d \u201cTop 10 People of 2013\u201d for her heroic efforts in helping women. \u201cThis honor came … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[49,30,7,8,152,20,1,153,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chinas-one-child-policy","category-coerced-abortion","category-forced-abortion","category-one-child-policy","category-pope-francis","category-reggie-littlejohn","category-uncategorized","category-vatican","category-womens-rights-without-frontiers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1524"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1716,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1524\/revisions\/1716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}