Forced abortion

A forced abortion may occur when the perpetrator causes abortion by force, threat or coercion, or by taking advantage of woman's incapability to give her consent. This may also include the instances when the conduct was neither justified by medical or hospital treatment. Like forced sterilization, forced abortion may include a physical invasion of female reproductive organs.

The prosecution argued that voluntary as well as involuntary abortion was a crime against humanity at some of the Nuremberg Trials.[1][2]

People's Republic of China

Forced abortions associated with administration of the one-child policy have occurred in the People's Republic of China; they are a violation of Chinese law and are not official policy.[3] They result from government pressure on local officials who, in turn, employ strong-arm tactics on pregnant mothers.[4] On September 29, 1997 a bill was introduced in the United States Congress titled Forced Abortion Condemnation Act, that sought to "condemn those officials of the Chinese Communist Party, the government of the People's Republic of China and other persons who are involved in the enforcement of forced abortions by preventing such persons from entering or remaining in the United States".[5] In June 2012 Feng Jianmei was forcibly made to abort her 7 month old fetus after not paying a fine for breaking the one-child policy.[3] Her case was widely discussed on the internet in China to general revulsion after photos of the stillborn baby were posted online.[6] A fortnight after the forced abortion she continued to be harassed by local authorities in Shaanxi Province.[7] On July 5, the European Parliament passed a resolution saying it "strongly condemns" both Feng's case specifically and forced abortions in general "especially in the context of the one-child policy."[8]

Part of the work of the activist "barefoot lawyer" Chen Guangcheng also concerned excesses of this nature.[9] By 2012 disgust with forced abortion was being expressed by the public in China despite its reduced use, and repeal of the one-child policy was reportedly being discussed in some quarters for this and other reasons.[4][10]

North Korean refugees repatriated from China

The People's Republic of China returns all illegal immigrants from North Korea which usually imprisons them in a short term facility. Women who are suspected of being impregnated by Chinese fathers are subjected to forced abortions; babies born alive are killed.[11] Abortions up to full term are induced by injection; live premature babies or full-term newborns are sometimes killed.[12]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Congressional Record, V. 144, Pt. 10, June 25, 1998 to July 14, 1998, page 15137
  2. ↑ "Nuremberg and the Crime of Abortion". U. Toledo. L. Rev. 42: 283. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 David Barboza (June 15, 2012). "China Suspends Family Planning Workers After Forced Abortion". The New York Times. Retrieved June 27, 2012.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Edward Wong (July 22, 2012). "Reports of Forced Abortions Fuel Push to End Chinese Law". The New York Times. Retrieved July 23, 2012.
  5. ↑ "H.R. 2570 (105th): Forced Abortion Condemnation Act". Govtrack.us. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
  6. ↑ Evan Osnos (June 15, 2012). "Abortion and Politics in China" (Blog by reporter in reliable source). The New Yorker. Retrieved June 27, 2012.
  7. ↑ Edward Wong (June 26, 2012). "Forced to Abort, Chinese Woman Under Pressure". The New York Times. Retrieved June 27, 2012.
  8. ↑ "EU Parliament condemns China forced abortions". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Agence France-Presse. July 6, 2012. Retrieved July 7, 2012.
  9. ↑ Pan, Philip P. (8 July 2006). "Chinese to Prosecute Peasant Who Resisted One-Child Policy". Washington Post. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
  10. ↑ Forced abortion sparks outrage, debate in China CNN, June 2012
  11. ↑ James Brooke (June 10, 2002). "N. Koreans Talk of Baby Killings". The New York Times. Retrieved August 3, 2012.
  12. ↑ David Hawk (2012). The Hidden Gulag Second Edition The Lives and Voices of "Those Who are Sent to the Mountains" (Second edition ed.). Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. pp. 111–155. ISBN 0615623670. Retrieved September 21, 2012.