Maybe you have heard, maybe not. But a chinese woman called feng jianmei has been forced to abort her pregnancy 7 months in due to chinas strict one child per family rule. This is not uncommon and babies have also been terminated forcibly at 8 or 9 months and “allowed to die” which is surely something different to termination all togther. I just can’t get my head round this- there is an awful photo of the poor poor woman and her baby lurking the internet somewhere. I know the issues at hand in china are much larger than this incident alone, biut please, if you can, let’s all spare a thought for this poor woman and her baby.
To say that this is sad or tragic just doesn’t cover it - how do you begin to get your head around something like that?
I am sending out love and will light a candle for them when I get home - for them and all the other victims of such brutality. And pray for an end to this cruel practice.
I agree. I’m sure most are aware of ‘controlled birthing’ in china due to the massive population, however what’s less known is that suicide in women between something like 15-30 is the main cause of death and it isn’t really surprising why. This woman is probably one of millions- termination rates are ridiculously high tthere. I understand every situation is different and therefore am never ‘against’ terminations but such late term and to be brutally forced upon a woman? That’s a human rights issue. I haven’t yet looked into what amnesty are saying about this but I will do when little one is asleep. Just barbaric. Thank you for replying x
My Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner told me they (In China) usually kill the baby before the woman births, as even at 7 months many can survive if left. Not that this is any better than not, but he told me this recently and as a pregnant mama I have found myself thinking about it far too often. I can only imagine the horror. It’s such a f*cked up thing to know about and that it happens despite our knowing…...
edited to add the photo…... I am looking into what can be done, and what can be done from here? Are their petitions to sign and so on? I just don’t know, or even if it would help in any way. I cannot fathom how my signing of a petition can help a woman in rural china from being dragged from her home…..
Claire- I agree. I feel like being horrified by this is not enough. It feels hypocritical to not try to do something but like you I wonder what can actually be done and would it even make any difference. China as a country is very ‘quiet’ about its practices and politically speaking do not enjoy much outsider input. However I don’t feel right not trying to do *something*. I imagine there are campaigners out there trying. I did see the photo out of curiosity as I don’t often believe much about western media and I do agree it is tragically sad. As far as I am aware, thses forced abortions (if the baby is not killed before the birth) will be left to die within 24 hours of the birth as we all know that 7 months gestation a baby can very well survive. Although the photo is horrifying, I don’t think we do ourselves any good to shut off from the realities of the world and sometimes to know the full extent of the story we need to see the full extent of the story. On many levels is this wrong. Not only that baby was essentially killed, but thebrutual way in which the poor woman was forced to ‘abort’ her baby is just…gosh I don’t know or have the words. My heart feels heavy tonight, not just because I am currently 7 months pregnant, nor that I have seen myself the reality of stillbirth, but purely because this is an injustice and violation to the basic human rights of this woman. What can we do?
We try to boycott Chinese goods, but that’s mainly because of the human rights abuses within the manufacturing industry there - I’m not sure whether a boycott of goods will do anything to change this kind of policy - I wonder even whether it would make thongs worse….
I guess we can lobby parliament to introduce sanctions - seemed to work in South Africa eventually….
I can’t find anything from amnesty which is unusual. They may be getting something together or realise this is a massive issue and are unsure how to tackle it. China are very very closed when it comes to allowing outsiders in. I’ve found an activist group called allgirlsallowed which has a lot of informattion on late tterm abortions in china and I’m under the impression they are trying to do something but it isn’t clear if they are american based or not. Officials in china have apparently appologised to jianmei but how on earth do you appologise for such an attrocity. The guardian has also reposrted about a 37 year old woman dying in china after a forced late term abortion last year. There are thousands if not millions more of these cases. I’m going to cornwall tomorrow for a week and won’t have a laptop with me but will be contacting amnesty when I return if still I can find nothing from them.
this is sickening.
That poor mother. And they have just plonked her daughter there on the plastic like a piece of medical waste, not even like a human.
I gasped in horror when i saw this.
Its disgusted me, i will research into how this could possibly happen. there must be other cases like this with the parents far to affraid to be vocal about their experience.
All because she didnt fill out a form and pay a fee- if it had happened anywhere else there would be uproar but china seem to be able to do what they like, when they like.
so sad. :-(
Just seen in the i newspaper that CNN have reported that the graphic photos of this poor woman have actually started a rare debate in China, with a lot of comment on their ‘Twitter’ about murderers being brought to justice.
Let’s hope the debate continues - keeping the subject alive is one of the best things we can do to help stop this situation.
Lots of the news stories are all about the photo. Which is besides the point really. It’s the PRACTICE that is wrong, not that we have seen a photo of a dead baby. This has been going on for quite a long time. Although I suppose the photo, the graphic image (as often is the case) is what incites people to act. Hearing about this sort of thing in the abstract is very different than seeing an actual mother, with a name and her dead baby. The internet and camera phones, hopefully, will change the world for the better with issues like this.
