Reflections on the causes of forced abortion in China

In June, 2012, the photograph of a woman lying next to the body of a fetus she was forced to abort at 7 months' gestation shocked Chinese internet users.1AnonChina forced abortion photo sparks outrage. BBC News Online.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-18435126Date: June 14, 2012Google Scholar Feng Jianmei was coerced into the abortion by local officials because she could not pay the fine for having a second child. Media reports from China said that Feng was seriously traumatised by what had happened.1AnonChina forced abortion photo sparks outrage. BBC News Online.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-18435126Date: June 14, 2012Google Scholar Many internet users in China expressed their outrage and sympathy. In recent years, many forced abortions have taken place in China.2Watts J Chinese officials accused of forcing abortions in Shandong.Lancet. 2005; 366: 1253Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (3) Google Scholar Officials, especially in rural areas, have also been accused of using kidnapping and of pulling down houses to enforce the country's one-child policy. Under Chinese law, the goals of the one-child policy are supposed to be achieved through financial penalties. However, seemingly to get ahead in demographic statistics that show their district to be successful in managing fertility, some local officials have resorted to brutal methods.2Watts J Chinese officials accused of forcing abortions in Shandong.Lancet. 2005; 366: 1253Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (3) Google Scholar One reason for this situation could be the glut of family planning officers at local levels. The more officials the government employs, the heavier burden rural people bear on their shoulders. When family planning is enforced, conflicts are caused, which further increase the tension between the common people and the officials, and affect social stability. Family planning is a hotbed of corruption in rural areas: rural officials, who may be poorly educated and poorly supervised, have taken advantage of variations in the strictness of family planning laws to demand more money when laws were strict, and temporarily allow unrestricted births when the laws were more relaxed (which they later claimed were unscheduled births and issued fines for).3Littlejohn R China's one child policy: new evidence of coercion. Forced abortion, contraception and the practice of ‘implication’.http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/Congressional%20Report%2013%20Cases%20FINAL.pdfGoogle Scholar The widespread practice of abortion and sterilisation by means of violence and threats is a tragedy and must be outlawed. It also raises a broader question about the surveillance and supervision of district-level family planning officers, which should be strengthened. I declare that I have no conflicts of interest. China's one-child policy itself leads to forced abortionsIn 1979, I was given the honour of being the first Western social scientist allowed to do extensive field research in China since the Communist revolution. From my vantage point, I was able to observe first-hand how the newly introduced one-child policy was being implemented. Full-Text PDF