China enforces one-child policy through forced abortion, forced sterilization and infanticide

By Reggie Littlejohn, President of the Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, Via The epochtimes-

Most people know that China has a one-child policy. But do they stop to think how this policy is enforced? It is enforced through forced abortion, forced sterilization—and at times—infanticide.

This grisly truth was reported last week: according to Xinhua, China’s official news agency, 21 bodies of fetuses and babies were found discarded in a river in the village of Jiming, Shandong Province, in East China. Xinhua stated, “The bodies may have been dumped by cleaners from local hospitals after abortions and induced labor. Such dead bodies are treated as medical waste by hospitals.”

The Chinese communist authorities, of course, immediately cremated the bodies, destroying evidence. If outside sources could have examined the corpses, we could have learned whether the majority were girls (consistent with gendercide) and whether the skulls of the full term babies had been punctured (consistent with forced abortion or infanticide).

During a congressional hearing on Nov. 10, 2009, before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, I presented two documents, recently leaked out of China, setting forth new information on the Chinese communist practice of infanticide. According to these sources, practices include:

•    Puncturing the brain and injecting it with poison during labor or immediately after birth;
•    throwing the infant on the ground; and
•    drowning by placing the infant in a bucket of water and stepping on him or her

In the United States we’ve had 50 million abortions since Roe vs. Wade. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) boasts that it has “prevented” 400 million births through its One-Child Policy, which was instituted in 1979. That’s more than the entire population of the United States!

Whether you’re pro-life or pro-choice, everyone opposes forced abortion because it’s not a choice. Pro-choice advocate Hillary Clinton has condemned it repeatedly.

China’s one-child policy causes more violence to women and girls than any other official policy on earth.

Forced abortion is traumatic to women. It is a form of torture. To read one woman’s harrowing account, visit http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/

Because of the traditional preference for boys, sex-selective abortion is common and most of the aborted fetuses are girls. In addition, female infanticide is a problem. According to a recent study published in the British Medical Journal, the overall sex ratio for China is 126 boys for every 100 girls. Nine provinces had ratios of over 160, for second children. The article states, “Sex selective abortion accounts for almost all the excess males.”

Because of this gendercide, there are then 37 million more men than women in China today. This gender imbalance is a major force driving sexual trafficking of women and girls in Asia.

China has the highest female suicide rate of any country in the world. It is the only nation in which more women than men kill themselves. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 500 women a day end their lives. Could this extraordinary suicide rate be related to coercive family planning?

Women who have violated the policy are often forcibly sterilized. Forced sterilization is a serious human rights abuse and can lead to life-long health complications.

Some people argue that because the United States owes China so much money, we can’t challenge them on their miserable human rights record. I disagree. Chinese citizens cannot speak freely about the one-child policy. Blind activist Chen Guangcheng told the world about the fact that there were 130,000 forced abortions in Linyi County, Shandong Province, in one year, 2005. He is now serving a four-year, three-month prison sentence on false charges. He has been tortured, is gravely ill, and is being denied medical treatment.

Those of us in the west who can speak out, must speak out for those who cannot. As Edmund Burke said, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”

Reggie Littlejohn is President of the Women’s Rights Without Frontiers and represents Human Rights Without Frontiers and China Aid Association. For more information and what you can do, see:www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org