WUNRN
CHINA - FEMALE LAWYERS CALL FOR
WOMEN'S RIGHTS PROTECTION IN CHINA FAMILY PLANNING POLICY
Editor: Sylvia Liu - December 13. 2013
Thirty
female lawyers nationwide have written a letter to authorities demanding that
they remove stipulations under the family planning policy that violate women's
rights and interests.
The lawyers, from more than 10 municipalities and provinces across China, sent
the letter to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress,
National Health and Family Planning Commission and the All-China Women's
Federation (ACWF) on December 9, 2013.
According to lawyer Liu Wei from central China's Henan Province, despite China
having outlawed in 2002 the use of physical force to make a woman submit to an
abortion or sterilization, many local governments demand or force women to have
abortions if the pregnancy violates local regulations or the policy.
The issue gained prominence in 2012, when 27-year-old Feng Jianmei in northwest
China's Shaanxi Province was forced to terminate her pregnancy at seven months
in a hospital in Zhenping County. Details of the case, including several photos
showing the remains of the fetus lying next to the mother on her hospital bed,
were posted on online forums to the shock and anger of many citizens
nationwide.
While rural residents and ethnic minorities are permitted to have more than one
child, urban residents like Feng are currently limited to a single child,
according to family planning policies introduced in the 1970s to rein in
China's surging population.
The lawyers are hoping that authorities will establish a supervision mechanism
to regulate the behavior of family planning officials and an accountability
mechanism to avoid a repeat of the tragedy that happened to Feng.
China announced adjustments to its one-child policy in early November this
year. According to the announcement, married couples will be allowed to have
two children if at least one spouse is an only child. Previously, the rule
applied to couples where both husband and wife were only children. The policy
will be implemented in stages across the country.
(Source: Southern Metropolis Daily / Translated by womenofchina.cn)
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China Apologises to Pregnant Woman
Forced to Have Abortion at 7 Months Pregnant for Breaching One-Child
Policy and Suspends 3 Officials
Officials
have apologised to a Chinese woman who was forced to have an abortion while
seven months pregnant and have suspended three people responsible for the
incident.
The move came just days after shocking photographs emerged on the
web showing the mother, Feng Jianmei, lying next to her blood-covered baby
minutes after the procedure took place.
Officials have apologised in a move to allay public anger over the
case, which has triggered renewed criticism of China's widely hated one-child
limit.
Designed to control the country's exploding population, the policy
has led to violent and forced abortions and sterilizations, as local
authorities try to meet birth quotas set by Beijing.
In this latest case, Feng, 27, told local media that she was
forceably injected with a chemical to induce an abortion and her child was
stillborn 36 hours later at a hospital in Shaanxi province.
Local officials said they were investigating the incident, as
Chinese law prohibits abortions beyond six months.
The grisly photographs which were taken by Feng's sister, have
shocked anti-abortion groups in China, and fury is spreading around the world.
Horrific: Feng Jianmei said she
was forceably injected with a chemical to induce an abortion and her child was
stillborn 36 hours later
Because she already had a five-year-old daughter, said Feng, local
birth-control authorities ordered her to pay a fine of £4,000.
She didn't have the money, she said, so a team from the local
family planning authority in Shannxi province came to collect her from her home
and take her to hospital for the forced abortion.
Recounting the horror, Feng said she told the family planning
department she could not pay the fine because her mother-in-law needed money
for cancer treatment.
It was then, she
claimed, the authorities began their action against her.
She said no less than 20 staff from the family planning department
came to her home and placed her under arrest.
In a phone interview with NBC, Feng claimed that she was dragged
out of her relative’s home, carried and shoved into a van that headed straight
to a hospital on June 2.
She was then beaten, blindfolded, thrown on a bed, and forced to
sign a document that she couldn’t read with the blindfold still on her
eyes.
At the hospital she was
restrained and given an injection that would be lethal to the foetus. None of
her family was allowed to be present during the traumatic time, she said.
Feng said that her father-in-law heard about her being taken away
but when he rushed to the hospital he was prevented from entering the
obstetrics ward.
On June 4, Feng gave birth to a dead baby girl.
As outrage spread of the incident, Chai Ling of the U.S.-based
activist group All Girls Allowed said Feng's story demonstrated how the
One-Child Policy continued to sanction violence against women every day.
The group said it had spoken to Feng and her husband Deng Jiyuan
after the incident, when Mr Deng claimed his wife had been forcibly taken to
hospital and restrained before she was given the injection.
Within China there has been growing outrage on social media sites.
One writer commented: 'This is what they say the Japanese devils
and Nazis did.
'But it's happening in reality and it is by no means the only
case.' The writer added: 'They (the officials) should be executed.
As outrage spread around anti-abortion groups in China, the
authorities strenuously denied Feng's version of the events.
Li Yuongjou, deputy chief of Ankang's family department, said the
reality was that 'Feng was not forced to abort'.
He said: 'A lot of us tried for days to educate her. She agreed to
the abortion herself.'
He added that in China an abortion is allowed up to 28 weeks,
saying: 'It's not illegal to conduct "medium term" induction of
labour.'
And he admitted, however, that in his town the local target of
enforcing the one-child policy had not been achieved for two consecutive years
and the authorities were acting more strenuously to see that the target
covering 95 per cent of the population was reached.
But Feng strenuously denied this version of events.
She told NBC: 'No, I didn’t agree to do it. How can I agree to do
that, as a mother?'
A report from Zinhua, China's official government news agency,
said that the Shaanxi Provincial Family Planning Committee has sent an
investigation team to Zengjiazhen and requested local government to have the
responsible parties held accountable.
The report said: "This has damaged the image of family
planning work, and had an adverse effect on society. The committee will
resolutely prevent such things from happening again."
Local media said it was most likely that Feng had been injected
with a chemical commonly known as Lifannuo - a powerful bactericide used in the
late 1980s and early 1990s when China's one-child policy was strongly pursued
by authorities.
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Full Article:
China
Forced-Abortion Woman Suffering State Harassment, Lawyer Says
Family
of Feng Jianmei attacked as 'traitors' for talking to foreigners after late
termination sparked outrage on microblogs......
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Women's Rights Without Frontiers
China - Forced Abortions &
One-Child Policy - Video
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