Democrazia, ruolo della legge e politica del figlio unico in Cina

By Reggie Littlejohn (*)

In questo tema, non è questione se tu sei per la vita o a favore di una scelta. Nessuno può accettare l’aborto forzato, perché esso non è una scelta.

Che cosa intendo per aborto forzato? Ecco un paio di esempi rilasciati il 25 febbraio scorso dal dipartimento di Stato Usa su i diritti umani in Cina. Nel marzo 2008 una ragazza di 23 anni nubile e incinta di sette mesi è stata imprigionata con la forza. Fonti ufficiali hanno riferito che il neonato è stato ucciso. Nell’aprile 2008 la sorella di una donna che aveva illegalmente avuto un secondo bambino è stata picchiata e imprigionata con il tentativo di far sottoporre la sorella ad un aborto. Da documenti della Commissione esecutiva del dipartimento Usa sopra citato, coloro i quali, in Cina, non rispettano la politica del figlio unico, sono soggetti a sterilizzazioni forzate, aborto forzato, detenzione arbitraria e tortura.

Questo non è un tema politico. E’ un tema di diritti umani e diritti delle donne. Questi, sono crimini contro l’umanità.

Segue il testo integrale in inglese

EIN News (25.03.2009) - It doesn’t matter whether you are pro-life or pro-choice on this issue. No one can support forced abortion, because it is not a choice.

What do I mean by “forced abortions”? Here are a couple of examples from the U.S. Department of State China Report, just released on February 25, 2009: “In March [2008] family planning officials in Henan Province reportedly forcibly detained a 23-year-old unmarried woman who was seven months pregnant. Officials reportedly tied her to a bed, induced labor, and killed the newborn upon delivery. In April [2008] population-planning officials in Shandong provinces reportedly detained and beat the sister of a woman who had illegally conceived a second child in an attempt to compel the woman to undergo an abortion.”

According to the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China report, released on October 31, 2008, “Violators of the [one-child] policy are routinely punished with exorbitant fines, and in some cases, subjected to forced sterilization, forced abortion, arbitrary detention, and torture.”

This is not a political issue. It’s a human rights issue and a women’s issue. Women should not be treated this way.

In my opinion, systematic use of forced abortion is a crime against humanity. And now, Americans will be helping foot the bill.

Just this month, the U.S. Congress quietly passed $50 million in funding for UNFPA, the United Nations Family Planning Fund. The bill includes language that voids Kemp-Kasten, which for 23 years has stood to prevent US dollars from funding coercive family planning.

The US cut off funding UNFPA in 2001 because an investigation, headed by then Secretary of State Colin Powell, found that UNFPA was complicit with the Chinese Family Planning officials in coercive implementation of China’ One-Child Policy. According to our own State Department, as well as Amnesty International, China Aid and others, the implementation of China’s One-Child Policy remains coercive.

UNFPA claims that it has played a catalytic role in introducing voluntary family planning to China. To test this claim, the Population Research Institute launched an on-the-ground investigation of three counties in which UNFPA operates in China, from March 7th to 11th of this year. The investigation found that the coercive enforcement of the one-child policy has not grown better in these counties, but worse.

Why must we fund forced abortion with our tax dollars?

Not only are women dragged out of their homes screaming and pleading in “family planning raids,” but the One-Child Policy has also led to many other serious human rights violations. I’ll name just three:

1. Gendercide. Because of the traditional preference for boys, most of the aborted babies are girls. There are 120 boys born for every 100 girls born in China, and in some areas the number is as high as 130 boys born for every 100 girls. Since the One-Child Policy was instituted in 1978, 400 million births - greater than the entire population of the United States - have been “prevented.” You could say that an entire nation of women is not living in China today because they were selectively aborted before they were born. This is gendercide.

2. Human Trafficking and Sexual Slavery. Because of abortion, abandonment, and infanticide of baby girls, there are an estimated 30 million Chinese men who will never marry because they cannot find wives. This gender imbalance is a powerful, driving force behind trafficking in women and sexual slavery from nations surrounding China. According to the February, 2009 State Department China Report, “Over the past five years, there reportedly was an increase in cross-border trafficking cases, with most trafficked women and girls coming from North Korea, Mongolia and Vietnam. Others came from Burma, Laos, Russia and Ukraine.”

3. Female suicide. According to the World Health Organization, China has the highest female suicide rate of any country in the world. Approximately 500 Chinese women commit suicide each day. Forced abortion traumatizes women. Could this high suicide rate be related to forced abortion?

And now, U.S. taxpayer dollars will subsidize forced abortion in China, joining the rest of the nations that are already funding UNFPA. If you disagree with government funding of China’s One-Child Policy, let your voice be heard. If there’s enough of an outcry, perhaps China can be excluded from UNFPA funding.

(*) Reggie Littlejohn is HRWF Int’l expert on one-child policy.