China and Abortion: Part 2
This is the second instalment in the series about China and Abortion by ‘Rose’, an American living in China.
It is conservatively estimated that of China’s 13, 000,000 annual abortions, around 1% (130,000) are forced abortions. ‘Rose’s’ insights in no way downplay the reality of the One-Child Policy’s brutal enforcement, but indicate the culture of fear that prevails in China, and also shows us our own future if we fail to change public perception of abortion in the West.
A Culture of Coercion.
I am not claiming to be an expert on abortion in China. I am merely trying to be an observant observer and share what I have learned so that others who don’t live in China might better understand the situation so that they can one day effectively help those afflicted by abortion in China.
One thing I have noticed in my time here is that ethnic minorities tend to have two, three and sometimes even four children, whereas Han Chinese (ethnically Chinese people) tend to have only one. I have also seen exceptions to this, but they are less common, and more than two is extremely rare. Those in the Western pro-life community tend to blame this on forced abortion. We hear horrific stories of people violating the one child policy that end up having ambulances sent to their homes to have their children violently ripped from their bodies. I am not going to try to say that this doesn’t happen, but I will say, most people in China are not threatened with this level of violence for children they conceive outside the one child policy.
The Chinese government usually relies on coersion. They put pressure on people using cultural “hot buttons” that make people feel that they “have” to have an abortion. The Chinese government know how to use these buttons to get people to follow their rules without physically forcing them to abort.
One of these ways is by putting pressure on employers to ensure that their employees are following the one child policy. I have heard many stories of people that got pregnant that were threatened to have their job terminated if they would not have an abortion. This is further compounded by the fact that if they want their child to go to public school they will have to pay huge fines, so if they don’t abort their child will very likely be very poor, because they will not have the opportunity to go to good schools. Ethnic minority people in China usually don’t like public schools and usually don’t care about this as much as Han Chinese do.
To be Continued…
For more articles by Americans living in China, try China Hope Live blog, where you can read about “painless”, “cozy”, “cheerful”, “3-minute”, “sweet dream” abortions.
This post on Weibo, includes some Chinese advertisements for abortion.
For more about China’s abortion culture, try Asian Correspondent - both posts highlight the fact that sterility is associated with repeat abortions.
