An article in last Wednesday’s USA Today chronicled in horrifying terms the forced abortion of 31-year-old Pan Chunyan’s baby. The only reason we know about the tragic ordeal, similar instances of which happen frequently in China, is because of the Internet and the explosion of social media users in that Communist-controlled country.
Ms. Chunyan was eight months pregnant with her third child, a violation of China’s one-child policy. She was told that she could keep her baby provided she pay a penalty, which was the equivalent of $8,640 U.S. dollars.
Her husband was somehow able to raise the money and pay the fee, but the funds never reached the right person in time. Pan was taken against her will while shopping in a grocery store, brought to a hospital and injected with fluids that quickly killed her pre-born son.
Just like that.
“My wife only got a glance at the child, her heart broke, and she cried loudly, because the whole body was black and the skin on the face had peeled,” lamented her husband. “This is a life that had no time to look at this beautiful world with eyes open.”
According to some estimates there are more than 13 million abortions each year in China.
It just takes your breath away, doesn’t it?
Of course, somebody might ask if there’s any difference between a forced abortion in China and an elective abortion in the United States?
Yes, there is a big difference between 13 million abortions per year in China and nearly 1 million per year in the United States.
Or is there?
Regardless of the country or the circumstance, the babies involved are not consulted and the resulting loss of life is the same.
There have been some rumblings that Chinese officials are considering a revision or elimination of the one-child policy, but at this point, it’s still a matter of speculation. Easier access to news and the difficulty of censoring to the previous degree are causing Chinese officials to change communication tactics. Or at the very least, it’s forcing them to be more forthcoming with details since many secrets can no longer be kept.
From a U.S. policy perspective, the USA Today article offered some pretty blunt analysis:
Though the White House says it opposes forced abortions, the United States has taken no overt action to sanction China for the practice and has restored U.S. taxpayer funds to a United Nations agency that anti-abortion activists accuse of abetting China’s harsh family planning policies. The Obama administration opposes a bill by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., that would revoke the funding, a measure supported by Chai Ling, who as a student led the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.
To think that U.S. taxpayer monies are enabling the murders of innocent children should move all of us to pray fervently and make our voices heard to reverse this evil – and quickly.
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