Dozens Of Women In Southwest China Say They Underwent Forced Abortions, Government Investigation Finds Claims Fabricated, NPR Reports

Dozens of women in Southwest China recently have reported being forced to undergo abortions as late as nine months into their pregnancies, NPR's "Morning Edition" reports. Some women from the region's Guangxi Province say they were forced to have abortions because they were unmarried, while other women were married and pregnant with their second child (Lim [1], "Morning Edition," NPR, 4/23). China's one-child-per-family policy seeks to keep the country's population, now 1.3 billion, at about 1.7 billion by 2050. Ethnic minorities and farmers are the only groups legally exempt from the rule nationwide. Methods of enforcing the policy, such as fines and work demotions, vary among Chinese provinces and cities (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 3/2). According to NPR, Liang Yage and Wei Linrong, a married couple from Baise City with one child, last week contacted a Christian group based outside of China after they said Liang was forced to have an abortion at seven months' gestation. Other unnamed individuals have reported that several dozen women underwent similar procedures at Youjiang District Maternity Hospital in Baise City last week, NPR reports. A Baise City family planning official named Nong said forcing women to undergo abortions against their will would be against the law. He said that an investigation into the reports had already been concluded and that officials determined the reports of forced abortions were fabricated. According to NPR, reports from China's Xinhua News Agency show that the Baise City government last year missed its family planning target by a fraction of 1%. The figures "shed some light on why a forced abortion campaign might be judged necessary," NPR reports (Lim [2], "Morning Edition," NPR, 4/23). Audio and a partial transcript of the segment are available online.

"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.