{"id":1838,"date":"2014-10-17T21:50:58","date_gmt":"2014-10-17T21:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/?p=1838"},"modified":"2014-10-17T21:50:58","modified_gmt":"2014-10-17T21:50:58","slug":"cong-chris-smith-chen-guangcheng-and-reggie-littlejohn-unite-to-fight-forced-abortion-and-gendercide-in-china-heritage-and-wrwf-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/cong-chris-smith-chen-guangcheng-and-reggie-littlejohn-unite-to-fight-forced-abortion-and-gendercide-in-china-heritage-and-wrwf-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Cong. Chris Smith, Chen Guangcheng and Reggie Littlejohn Unite to Fight Forced Abortion and Gendercide in China \u2013 Heritage and WRWF Event"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Congressman<\/a>

Congressman Chris Smith, Chen Guangcheng and Reggie Littlejohn after speaking at The Heritage Foundation, October 9, 2014. Photo credit: Karen Cross<\/p><\/div>\n

WASHINGTON, D.C.\u00a0 In commemoration of the International Day of the Girl Child, The Heritage Foundation partnered with Women\u2019s Rights Without Frontiers in co-hosting a powerful event to expose the truth of China\u2019s One Child Policy.\u00a0<\/span>Representative Chris Smith, blind activist Chen Guangcheng, and Women\u2019s Rights Without Frontiers President Reggie Littlejohn\u00a0<\/span>joined forces to expose the atrocities of forced abortion and gendercide in China.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Reggie<\/a>

Reggie Littlejohn speaks at The Heritage Foundation, October 9, 2014. Photo credit: Penny Starr, CNS News<\/p><\/div>\n

Littlejohn shared harrowing statistics:\u00a0the Chinese Communist Party boasts that it has \u201cprevented\u201d 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, \u201ceach one of these 400 million lives \u2018prevented\u2019 is a victim of communism. This is the hallmark of communist regimes:\u00a0 the peace-time killing of their own citizens.\u201d 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 \u201csenior tsunami\u201d with no young population to sustain it.<\/span>\u00a0In Littlejohn\u2019s words, \u201c<\/span>China\u2019s 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 \u2018War on Women.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Littlejohn concluded on a note of hope, informing the audience of how they could make a difference \u2013 one daughter, one family at a time, through Women\u2019s Rights Without Frontier\u2019s<\/span>\u201cSave A Girl\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Congressman<\/a>

Congressman Chris Smith speaks at The Heritage Foundation, October 9, 2014. Photo credit: Penny Starr, CNS News<\/p><\/div>\n

Seventeen-term Congressman Smith keynoted the event, stating that \u201cforced abortion is state-sponsored violence against women and children.\u201d He explained that women in China are \u201cmocked, belittled, humiliated and exploited\u201d to the extent to which a mother \u201ccannot protect her unborn baby nor herself\u201d 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.\u00a0 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 \u2013 the blind, self-taught lawyer who bravely exposed the more than 100,000 forced abortions and sterilizations in his hometown of Linyi \u2013 Congressman<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith said \u201cI know of no other person on earth who has personally suffered so much for attempting to stop this cruelty to women.\u201d Indeed, Chen and his extended family have paid the price of intimidation, detention, torture and terror.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Chen<\/a>

Chen Guangcheng speaks at The Heritage Foundation, October 9, 2014. Photo credit: Penny Starr, CNS News<\/p><\/div>\n

Chen received a hero\u2019s welcome by the audience.\u00a0 He stated that the One Child Policy \u201chas 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.\u201d Chen related the account of one couple from a neighboring village.\u00a0 The wife was found to be pregnant without a birth permit. Because the pregnancy was \u201cillegal,\u201d 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.\u00a0 The husband was taken off the truck and beaten on the ground. After the wife\u2019s 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 \u201cwar zone,\u201d and insisted that \u201ceveryone needs to know that the Communist Party does not represent China and especially not the Chinese people.\u201d\u00a0 Rather, \u201cthey have become a public enemy of the Chinese people.\u201d \u00a0Chen concluded by explaining that in China they have a saying: \u201cYour home is your castle, and even a king will not be allowed to come in without the owner\u2019s permission.\u00a0 But now in today\u2019s 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.\u201d Chen concluded:\u00a0 \u201cIn such a situation, we, people of conscience, must stand up with the Chinese people to end the Communist rule in China.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Director of the Asia Study Center Walter Lohman moderated.\u00a0 Participants included State Department staff, Capitol Hill staff, numerous media outlets, several human rights organizations, and college students, as well as concerned citizens.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>View a video of the full event:\u00a0<\/span>http:\/\/www.heritage.org\/events\/2014\/10\/one-child-policy<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Learn more about the \u201cSave a Girl\u201d Campaign to save girls from gendercide in China:\u00a0<\/span>http:\/\/womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/index.php?nav=end-gendercide-and-forced-abortion<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, D.C.\u00a0 In commemoration of the International Day of the Girl Child, The Heritage Foundation partnered with Women\u2019s Rights Without Frontiers in co-hosting a powerful event to expose the truth of China\u2019s One Child Policy.\u00a0Representative Chris Smith, blind activist Chen … 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":[10,12,7,16,160,36,6,112,8,34,33,20,32,31,124,1,118,23,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chen-guangcheng","category-chris-smith","category-forced-abortion","category-forced-sterilization","category-heritage-foundation","category-human-dignity","category-human-rights","category-international-day-of-the-girl-child","category-one-child-policy","category-pro-choice","category-pro-life","category-reggie-littlejohn","category-reproductive-health","category-reproductive-rights","category-save-a-girl","category-uncategorized","category-war-on-women","category-womens-rights","category-womens-rights-without-frontiers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838","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=1838"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1846,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838\/revisions\/1846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}