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Aborted Baby Cries Before Cremation. Crematorium workers in Guangdong Province found an infant crying in a “medical waste” receptacle on its way to being cremated, reports Xinhua, China’s official news agency. The crematorium workers immediately sent the infant back to the hospital. Later that day, the hospital sent the infant back to the crematorium, dead. The hospital offered no explanation of the cause of death.
Earlier this year, Xinhua reported that 21 bodies of fetuses and babies were found discarded in a river in East China. Xinhua News 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.”
Meanwhile, the China Daily News glibly reports that China is celebrating International Children’s Day in grand style this week. Children attending the Shanghai Expo, for example, are being treated to treasure hunts, limbo competitions, face painting and brass band concerts. As the Chinese Communist Party propagandizes its official celebration of International Children’s Day, let us not forget the appalling truth: 400 million children – mostly girls — were “prevented” by China’s coercive One Child Policy. Let us also not forget how this policy is enforced — through forced abortion, forced sterilization — and at times, infanticide.
At a Congressional Hearing on November 10, 2009, (before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission), I presented two documents, recently leaked out of China, setting forth new information on the 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 to the ground; and
- Drowning by placing the infant in a bucket of water and stepping on him or her.
To see documentation of these practices, visit http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=congressional
Whether you’re pro-life or pro-choice, everyone opposes forced abortion because it’s not a choice. The One Child Policy causes more violence to women and girls than any other official policy on earth:
1) Forced abortion is traumatic to women. It is a form of torture. To read one woman’s harrowing account, visit http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=wujian
2) 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, boys for every 100 girls, for second children. The article stated, “Sex selective abortion accounts for almost all the excess males.” This practice constitutes “gendercide.”
3) Because of this gendercide, there are 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.
4) 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 in China. Could this extraordinary suicide rate be related to coercive family planning?
5) 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.
In my opinion, forced abortion, forced sterilization and infanticide as they are practiced in China today constitute crimes against humanity: serious human right atrocities that are “part either of a government policy . . . or of a wide practice of atrocities tolerated or condoned by a government,” under a standard referenced by the International Criminal Court established in The Hague in 2002. These crimes against humanity are oppressing 1.3 billion people – one fifth of the population of the earth. The people of China cannot speak out against these crimes without facing possible detention and torture. Those of us who can speak out, must speak out. These atrocities besmirch the face, not only of the Chinese Communist Party, but of all humanity.