Chinese couple 'physically forced' to abort 6 month pregnancy
Published: 2013 October 04 11:03:54 (4938 Views)
A couple have told Sky News how they were physically forced into an abortion by the Chinese authorities, three months before their child was due to be born.
At 4am last Friday, a group of 20 officials from the Shandong Province Family Planning Commission forced their way into the home of Zhou Guoqiang and his wife Liu Xinwen.
The officials kicked down the door of the family's home. Mr Zhou was held down while his wife was pulled from her bed and taken away.
Liu Xinwen, 33, was taken to the People's Hospital of Fangzi District in Weifang City where she was injected with an abortion-inducing drug.
Her baby, which she would later discover was a boy, died a day later in her womb. It took a further day for the foetus to be delivered.
Her husband was not told where she had been taken. It took him five hours to find her at the hospital. By then, the injection had been given.
Her heartbreak is the most brutal consequence of China's one-child policy.
The law is designed to keep the country's population in check. It prevents couples from having more than one child with a few exceptions in some rural provinces.
The policy is supposed to be enforced through financial penalties and not forced abortions.
But in some provinces, over-zealous local officials, keen to keep within their birth quotas, break the law and terminate pregnancies by force.
"They don't have any humanity. They are not humans." Liu Xinwen said.
"They must have children and parents too. But they don't have any conscience. This is how China is."
Mr Zhou told how the officials held him down on the sofa while others took his wife away. In all, there were 16 male officials and four females.
He claimed that his wife was forced to sign papers which said she had agreed to the abortion.
When she initially refused, he said they told her that if she did not sign the papers, they would arrest her husband and she would have nothing. Sky News was not been able to independently verify this.
The couple already have one son. Zhou Junfeng is 10.
After Zhou Junfeng was born his mother underwent a state-proscribed procedure to insert a contraceptive coil into her body.
She says that this "forced sterilisation" must have failed, allowing her to fall pregnant for a second time.
The couple had the option to tell the authorities about the pregnancy the moment they discovered it, four months after conception.
They decided not to come clean because they were concerned that an abortion may be forced on them.
Instead, they said they planned to tell the authorities after the birth and then offer to pay the fine.
This is common in parts of China and is sometimes acceptable.
Sky News has approached the Shandong Health and Family Planning Commission, the central government Family Planning Commission in Beijing and the Chinese Embassy in London for a response to this case.
To date, none has reportedly been forthcoming.
- SkyNews
At 4am last Friday, a group of 20 officials from the Shandong Province Family Planning Commission forced their way into the home of Zhou Guoqiang and his wife Liu Xinwen.
The officials kicked down the door of the family's home. Mr Zhou was held down while his wife was pulled from her bed and taken away.
Liu Xinwen, 33, was taken to the People's Hospital of Fangzi District in Weifang City where she was injected with an abortion-inducing drug.
Her baby, which she would later discover was a boy, died a day later in her womb. It took a further day for the foetus to be delivered.
Her husband was not told where she had been taken. It took him five hours to find her at the hospital. By then, the injection had been given.
Her heartbreak is the most brutal consequence of China's one-child policy.
The law is designed to keep the country's population in check. It prevents couples from having more than one child with a few exceptions in some rural provinces.
The policy is supposed to be enforced through financial penalties and not forced abortions.
But in some provinces, over-zealous local officials, keen to keep within their birth quotas, break the law and terminate pregnancies by force.
"They don't have any humanity. They are not humans." Liu Xinwen said.
"They must have children and parents too. But they don't have any conscience. This is how China is."
Mr Zhou told how the officials held him down on the sofa while others took his wife away. In all, there were 16 male officials and four females.
He claimed that his wife was forced to sign papers which said she had agreed to the abortion.
When she initially refused, he said they told her that if she did not sign the papers, they would arrest her husband and she would have nothing. Sky News was not been able to independently verify this.
The couple already have one son. Zhou Junfeng is 10.
After Zhou Junfeng was born his mother underwent a state-proscribed procedure to insert a contraceptive coil into her body.
She says that this "forced sterilisation" must have failed, allowing her to fall pregnant for a second time.
The couple had the option to tell the authorities about the pregnancy the moment they discovered it, four months after conception.
They decided not to come clean because they were concerned that an abortion may be forced on them.
Instead, they said they planned to tell the authorities after the birth and then offer to pay the fine.
This is common in parts of China and is sometimes acceptable.
Sky News has approached the Shandong Health and Family Planning Commission, the central government Family Planning Commission in Beijing and the Chinese Embassy in London for a response to this case.
To date, none has reportedly been forthcoming.
- SkyNews
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