China apologises for forced abortion

China apologises for forced abortion - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Chinese authorities have apologised to a woman forced to abort seven months into her pregnancy after images of her baby's corpse were posted online.

Rights groups have blamed authorities in north China's Shaanxi province for forcing Feng Jianmei, 27, to abort on June 2 because she failed to pay a hefty fine for exceeding China's strict "one-child" population control policy.

China has implemented the draconian family planning policy since the late 1970s in an effort to control a population that has grown to 1.3 billion people, the world's largest.

Under the policy, urban families are generally allowed to have one child, while rural families can give birth to two children if the first is a girl.

They have to pay a fine if they contravene the rules.

Several officials have been suspended in connection with the abortion scandal, the state Xinhua news agency said, including the director of Zhenping county's family planning bureau.

Those found responsible will be sacked, the report said.

"This is a serious violation of the National Population and Family Planning Commission's policies, jeopardises the population control work and has caused uneasiness in society," the provincial government said on its website.

Chinese web users have reacted in anger to the abortion, with one comparing it to acts perpetrated by "Japanese devils and Nazis", after photos online showed Feng lying on a hospital bed next to the body of her baby.

A relative said on Wednesday that Feng and her husband had opposed the termination, which was against regulations in effect since 2001 banning late-term abortions.

An official at the national family planning commission, who declined to be named, said that the body viewed the matter as "serious and important" and that an investigation was being handled at the "top level".

Rights groups say that as a result of the one child policy, thousands of women have been forced by authorities to terminate their pregnancies.

Blind activist Chen Guangcheng, who recently left China for the United States after fleeing house arrest, was once jailed after angering local officials for bringing to light hundreds of forced abortions.

Official statistics show that since the start of the policy, the number of abortions peaked in 1983, with a total of 14.37 million terminations that year.

The United States said on Monday that it has expressed opposition to China's one-child policy after activists reported that a five-month-pregnant woman faces an imminent forced abortion in a separate case.

"We make no secret that the United States strongly oppose all aspects of China's coercive birth limitation policies, including forced abortion and sterilisation, and we always raise these issues with the Chinese government," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

AFP

The punishment is too soft, they should be charged with murder.

Poor mother all she has done is born in China and she paid the price

Hope China will act on the authority more forcefully rather than usual suspending. THEY HAVE COMMITTED CRIME HIGHER THAN MURDER nothing less than that.

I can understand if the mother dont want her child but not the state

Godammit, 7 months? Is your country run by the devil !!

How can human being be this way?