Shaanxi, China—Government officials forced Feng Jianmei, who was 7 months pregnant with her second daughter, to undergo an abortion ten days ago. Five family planning officials abducted Ms. Feng on June 2nd while her husband, Deng Jiyuan, was away at work. When she could not pay the fine of 40,000 RMB ($6,270), they forcibly aborted her daughter.
“Feng Jianmei’s story demonstrates how the One-Child Policy continues to sanction violence against women every day,” said Chai Ling. “We learned that family planning officials in Jianmei’s region are launching a campaign of forced abortions this month. They received a lower grade from the government because of ‘over-quota’ births, and Jianmei’s story shows us how they plan to respond. Unfortunately her family was the first to receive the ‘opening of the knife.’”
The news came from a Chinese human rights watchdog site, Chinese Skynet Centre for Human Rights, and was picked up last night by Reggie Littlejohn of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers.
Last night Chai Ling of All Girls Allowed was able to locate the couple and speak to them at length. Deng Jiyuan told her that five men abducted his wife on June 2nd and took her to a hospital. “At the hospital they held her down,” said Jiyuan. “They covered her head with a pillowcase. She couldn’t do anything because they were restraining her.” The men had her “sign” an abortion consent form by inking her thumb and pressing it forcibly against the paper. Then they injected toxins into the brain of her unborn daughter.
Jianmei said, “I could feel the baby jumping around inside me all the time, but then she went still.”
Jianmei’s father-in-law rushed to the hospital, but officials prevented him from seeing her until after the abortion. The couple said one of the family planning officials was named Zhang Xiaosong.
After the injection, Jianmei endured painful contractions at the hospital until 3am local time on June 4th. Then she gave birth to her deceased child without any anesthesia. “It was much more painful than my first childbirth. The baby was lifeless, and she was all purple and blue,” said the mother.
Chai Ling says that Jianmei’s voice was filled with sorrow as she spoke. She said her elder daughter asked, “What happened to your tummy? Where did the baby go?” She has experienced a constant severe headache since the forced abortion. “If this had not happened,” she told Ling, “we would be joyful and everything would be fine.”
Her husband Jiyuan spoke to Ling with great pain, saying “I was gone and she had nobody with her. She is not doing well. A few hours ago, she was thinking about the baby and pulled a knife against herself. I had to stop her.” He wants to help her but feels unable to do anything, “What can I do?” he said, “I’m just an average worker. I have no power.”
Chai Ling asked Jianmei what she would like to say to the public, and she responded, “I wish all the other children in the world would be happy, healthy, and joyful.” Ling was amazed at the grace she showed and comforted the grieving mother, praying that God would restore the immense loss she experienced.
Ling called for action: “Anyone in a position to act—the Chinese central government, foreign embassies in Beijing, the U.S. Department of State—must condemn what happened to Feng Jianmei and protect other women from forced abortion. President Hu Jintao said forced abortions do not happen in China, but this family’s testimony shows that they do. China cannot continue to sanction the violence committed against its female citizens by family planning officials. Enough is enough. China must end the One-Child Policy and forced abortion. I pray they will, in Jesus’ name.”
