Forced abortions in China: you (and the UN) are funding them
by Reggie Littlejohn*
The president of Women's Rights Without Frontiers appeals for a stop to funding by international organisations that support forced abortions and sterilisations in China.
Rome (AsiaNews) – Population control officials continue to practice forced abortions and sterilisations as well as selective female foeticide and infanticide. This way, every country is involved in this huge slaughter, described as a "hundred times worse than the Tiananmen massacre, which occurred out in the open and was over in one day" by Chai Ling, a former Tiananmen leader. AsiaNews reprints the appeal made by Reggie Littlejohn, president of the Women's Rights Without Frontiers, an organisation opposed to forced abortions and sexual slavery in China.You are funding forced abortions in China. So am I. Not only elective abortions. Forced abortions. It doesn't matter whether you are pro-life or pro-choice on this issue. No one can support forced abortion, because it is not a choice.
What do I mean by "forced abortions?" Here's a short video about a young, Chinese woman who was dragged off the street, strapped to a table and forced to abort at seven months. You can read many more accounts of forced abortion, forced sterilization and infanticide under China's brutal One Child Policy here.
According to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China report, released on October 10, 2010, violators of China's One Child Policy continue to be victims of "forced sterilization, forced abortion, arbitrary detention, and other abuses."
The One Child Policy has also led to many other serious human rights violations. I'll name just three:
1. Gendercide. Because of the traditional preference for boys, girls are disproportionately subject to abortion, abandonment and infanticide.
2. Sexual Slavery. Because of the selective elimination of baby girls, there are now an estimated 37 million more males than females living in China today. This severe gender imbalance is a powerful, driving force behind trafficking in women and sexual slavery from nations surrounding China.
3. Female Suicide. According to the World Health Organization, China has the highest female suicide rate of any country in the world. Approximately 500 Chinese women end their lives each day. Could this extraordinary suicide rate be related to the trauma of enduring a forced abortion or forced sterilization?
How does this affect us? We are helping finance the infrastructure used in coercive family planning in China. The international community funds UNFPA (United Nations Family Planning Fund), as well as IPPF (International Planned Parenthood Federation) and Marie Stopes International. These organizations are operative "abortion providers" in China. In 2001, the US cut funding to UNFPA because an investigation, headed by then Secretary of State Colin Powell, found that UNFPA was complicit in the coercive implementation of China's One Child Policy. In 2008, the US State Department reaffirmed that determination, and yet we restored funding in 2009. UNFPA is also funded by many other nations.
In addition, the IPPF and Marie Stopes are working hand in hand with the Chinese Communist population control machine, which has been notorious in its excesses. The IPPF website openly declares, "The China Family Planning Association (CFPA) plays a very important role in China's family planning programme. It supports the present family planning policy of the government . . .". Meanwhile, the website for Marie Stopes International, lists as "major partners" the Family Planning Commissions of several provinces in China.
Just last week, US citizens voted to cut UNFPA funding under the new YOUCUTprogram. Because of this vote, Rep. Renee Ellmers will introduce legislation to cut UNFPA, saving $400 million over the next ten years. The bill still needs to pass through committee, and be passed by the House to become effective, so you still have time to contact your representative about it.
An admirer of American democracy once observed, "America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great." May we not lose our goodness, and hence our greatness as a nation by funding forced abortions in China.
To sign Women's Rights Without Frontiers' international petition against forced abortion and sexual slavery in China, click here.
To watch a four-minute video, "Stop Forced Abortion in China!", click here.
* Reggie Littlejohn is President of Women's Rights Without Frontiers. As an expert on China's One Child Policy for Human Rights Without Frontiers and China Aid, she has delivered an address at the European Parliament in Brussels and the British Parliament in London, briefed the White House and testified before Congress. She has spoken at the Harvard Law School, Stanford Law School, George Washington University, and The Heritage Foundation.
A graduate of Yale Law School, Ms Littlejohn has represented Chinese refugees in their political asylum cases in the United States.