A photo purporting to show a baby whose mother was forced to have an abortion has shocked Chinese internet users.
Feng Jiamei, from Zhenping county in Shaanxi, was allegedly made to undergo the procedure by local officials in the seventh month of pregnancy.
Ms Feng was forced into the abortion as she couldn't pay the fine for having a second child, US-based activists said.
Rights groups say China's one-child policy has meant women being coerced into abortions, which Beijing denies.
National and local family planning authorities are investigating the incident, the Global Times newspaper reports.
"Feng Jianmei's story demonstrates how the One-Child Policy continues to sanction violence against women every day," said Chai Ling of the US-based activist group All Girls Allowed.
The group says it spoke to Ms Feng and her husband Deng Jiyuan after the incident. Mr Deng said his wife had been forcibly taken to hospital and restrained before the procedure.
Unnamed local officials in Zhenping county quoted in local media reports denied forcing Ms Feng to have the abortion.
"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... They [the officials] should be executed," one reader on news website netease.com said, according to Agence France-Presse.
Activist Chen Guangcheng, who was put under virtual house arrest for campaigning against forced abortions, fled China to the US last month.
A graphic photo showing the bloody corpse of a baby whose mother was allegedly forced to have an abortion by Chinese authorities is shocking human rights groups and Chinese internet users.
Feng Jiamei was reportedly made to undergo the procedure in the seventh month of pregnancy because she could not afford the fine for having a second child, US-based activists say.
The human rights activists say China's one-child policy has meant woman are being coerced or forced into abortions. China's Government deny the claims.
"Feng Jianmei's story demonstrates how the One-Child Policy continues to sanction violence against women every day," Chai Ling of the US-based activist group All Girls Allowed told the BBC.
The group says it spoke to Feng's husband after the incident who said his wife had been forcibly taken to hospital and restrained before the procedure.
Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng, who fled to the US last month, was put under house arrest by Chinese authorities for bring attention to forced abortions.
ABORTION and FORCED ABORTION IN CHINA
The Sixth Commandment is "Thou shalt" not kill" (Exodus 20:13). Abortion is the killing of an unborn child. The term "abortion" is the termination of a pregnancy by means of removing a fetus from the womb of a woman. A spontaneous miscarriage may occur without being induced. This is not considered an abortion. This is an act of nature.
If abortion is considered a murder, why are people doing it? God said to Adam and Eve, "Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it:" (Genesis 1:28). The answer is simply this, they do not believe in God. They feel they are mistress of their own bodies. They have turned away from God.
In the United States, the Republicans do not indulge in abortion while the Democrats believe women have their own rights and what they do with their bodies are their own business. If they wish to have abortion, they have the right to decide for themselves. Sadly, many people agree with them.
ABORTION FACTS
54 countries allow abortion, which is about 61 percent of the world population. 97 countries, about 39 percent of the population, have abortion laws that make it illegal according to the pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Law and Policy in New York.
* The Alan Guttmacher Institute reports approximately 22 million legal abortions were reported in 1987.
* It is estimated that between four and nine million were not reported, totaling of 26-31 million legal abortions in 1987 alone.
* There were a total of 10-22 million "clandestine" abortions, bringing the total worldwide figure to 36 and 53 million abortions.
WORLD ABORTION LAW MAP
Key:
Green: Abortion never legal, or legal only when necessary to save the life of the mother or protect her physical health
Yellow: Abortion legal in "hard cases", such as rape, incest, and/or deformed child.
Red: Abortion legal for social reasons (e.g. mother says she can't afford a child), or to protect the mother's "mental health" (definitions and requirements vary).
Purple: Abortion legal at any time during pregnancy for any reason.
This map presents a summary of present abortion laws around the world. It is accurate -- to the best of our knowledge -- as of mid-2007, with one update (Iran) in 2008.
For a more detailed breakdown of each nation's laws, see our article Summary of Abortion Laws Around the World. (Clicking on any country in the above map should take you to the entry for that country in the "Summary" article.)
FORCED ABORTION IN CHINA
In 1979 China implemented the family planning policy where urban married couples were to have only one child and ethnic minority couples were excluded from the law. The population explosion had taken a toll on resources and the government decided on the implementation of one child per family.
The government could not forsee or was so shortsighted that the family planning policy would eventually lead to forced abortion. People are not puppets that they follow instructions set out by the law and not deviate.
"To date, the one-child policy has helped prevent at least 300 million births in China and aided the country's rapid economic development, AP writes."
China is one of the 54 countries that allows abortion. To comply with the law of one child per family, married couples would resort to abortion, otherwise they would have to pay heavy fines for violating the law of the country.
What is the difference between abortion and forced abortion? Normally, abortion is made voluntarily by the consenting mother whereas in China, the government sometimes forces the mother to physically abort the fetus. At other times, the father, parents or boyfriend may have a say in the decision of abortiion.
THE CHANGING FACE OF ABORTION
Young unmarried women when pregnant are forced by law to abort because the government does not recognise unmarried girls should be parents of one child per family. Today, more and more young girls are having sex and getting abortiion. Some are even having their second abortion.
Jim Yardley reported on May 13, 2007
QINGDAO, China - At an abortion clinic in this seaside city, a young woman sat in the recovery room with an IV drip in one hand and a cellphone in the other. She was 22 and worked as a nurse. Her boyfriend, an information technology specialist, sat nearby. They both knew the routine: It was her second abortion in 18 months.
Morning Edition, April 23, 2007 · During the past week, dozens of women in southwest China have been forced to have abortions even as late as nine months into the pregnancy, according to evidence uncovered by NPR.
Jeff Jacoby wrote:in Capital Magazine
"It would be hard to overstate the moral bankruptcy of those words. China's population-control laws are a horror. Couples are forced to sign "one-child" agreements, and may not have that child until they are issued a government quota. Couples who evade the rule are heavily fined, publicly humiliated, and often sterilized. Women found to be pregnant without a permit are forced to undergo abortion. Often they are in their eighth or ninth month."
NPR Reports
Cases of Forced Abortions Surface in China
by Louisa Lim
Liang Yage and his wife Wei Linrong had one child and believed that - like many other couples - they could pay a fine and keep their second baby. Wei was 7 months pregnant when 10 family planning officials visited her at home on April 16.
Liang describes how they told her that she would have to have an abortion, "You don't have any more room for maneuver," he says they told her. "If you don't go [to the hospital], we'll carry you." The couple was then driven to Youjiang district maternity hospital in Baise city ...
The couple was given a consent agreement to sign. When Liang refused, family planning officials signed it for him. He and his wife are devout Christians - he is a pastor - and they don't agree with abortion.
The officials gave Wei three injections in the lower abdomen. Contractions started the next afternoon, and continued for almost 16 hours. Her child was stillborn."
CAN ABORTION BE STOPPED ?
There is no end to abortion around the world from civilized to uncivilized countries. It will continue to grow and balloon to its unstoppable ending, unless people around the world turn to God, the creator of all life and human beings.
Does crime stop? Does greed stop? Does murder stop? The answer to all three questions is a resounding "NO". Human beings have no control over themselves, and unless they turn to God, crime will continue to grow with no end in sight. Unless man learns to love his neighbour as himself, he will remain selfish, self centred and doomed in the future.
China is not a Christian country and Christians account for only a small percentage. The Chinese are mostly Buddhists, ancestor worshippers, or Chinese folk religion worshippers. They worship the door god, the kitchen god or whatever objects they see as gods.
The Bible tells us to love God and love your neighbour as yourself (Mat 22:37-40; Mark 12:30,33; Luke 10:27).
"Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind (Matthew 22:37).
This is the first and great commandment (v. 38).
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself (vs. 39).
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets (vs. 40).
If you love God, you would obey His commandments and not kill. However, if you love your neighbour as yourself, of course, you are not going to kill or rob yourself. You want the best for yourself. Love is the answer.
1 Corinthians 13:13 states: "And now abideth faith, hope, charity (love), these three; but the greatest of these is charity (love).
We should look to the Bible with its 6,000 years of history in which every aspect of human life and behaviour can be found and learn from the mistakes of the past and forge ahead to successful living. Love conquers all.
Abortion in China
Do you know there is forced abortion in China?
Forced Abortion Statistics
Female Suicide in China
China is the only country in the world where women commit suicide more than men.[i]
In fact, the Beijing Suicide Research and Prevention Center reported in 2009 that the suicide rate for females was three times higher than for males.[ii]
Suicide is the #1 cause of death among Chinese rural women aged 15-34.[iii]
56% of the world’s female suicides occur in China, but only 20% of the world’s population lives in China.[iv]
500 women commit suicide in China each day.[v]
Easy access to pesticides contributes to the prevalence of suicides among rural women.[vi]
Violence against women and girls, discrimination in education and employment, the traditional preference for male children, birth-limitation policies, and other societal factors contribute to the high female suicide rate.[vii]
Abortion Statistics in China
Chinese data show that 13 million abortions are performed each year, for an average rate of 35,000 abortions per day.[viii]
About 27.3% of women in their 20’s—about 27.3 million women—have had an abortion.[ix]
In 2000, more than half of all abortions in China were a result of prenatal sex selection.[x]
One survey of 8,846 women showed that of those women who have had one abortion, 35.97% have another abortion shortly after the first one.[xi]
An average of 8 million women undergo abortions every year in China.[xii]
The abortion rate among women in China is 29.3%, which far exceeds the average level of other developed nations; in the population of 20-29 year-old young women, the abortion rate is 62%.[xiii]
In Shanghai, Beijing and other large cities, the rate of repeat abortion is higher than 50%.[xiv]
Regulations requiring women who violate family-planning policy to terminate their pregnancies still exist in the 25th, 42nd, and 22nd provisions of the Population and Family Control Regulation of Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang provinces, respectively. An additional 10 provinces--Fujian, Guizhou, Guangdong, Gansu, Jiangxi, Qinghai, Sichuan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Yunnan--require unspecified "remedial measures" to deal with unauthorized pregnancies.[xv]
While some researchers have suggested that Hepatitis is responsible for the high sex ratio, this is not supported by the evidence. Looking at the 2000 census data, if a second child is a male it will arrive, on average, 4 months later than a second born female. This delay in birth indicates that there is human intervention, abortions or infanticide, taking place before the birth of a male second child.[xvi]
Annual Abortion Numbers by Country[xvii]
Read more: http://www.allgirlsallowed.org/category/topics/forced-abortion#ixzz1xhi1byey
"I had not thought of participating in the (Miss Hong Kong) competition then. But when I decided to take part, I deleted all the photos. I don't know why there is still one left on my boyfriend's Facebook," she said.
