Chinese abortion scandal revealed

Press, 15 August 1981, Page 10

Chinese abortion scandal revealed

By

JONATHAN MIRSKY

China's overwhelming need to halt the growth of its onebillion population has resulted in thousands of violently administered abortions.

Details of the campaign, recently ended on the ground that it was a success, have be obscured because of the high standing of Party members in the State Council and the Guangdong (Canton) Party committees which ordered the abortions.

According to Hong Kong's “Zhengming Daily,” a total of 47,000 women, or nearly half the number of local women pregnant for a second or third time, recently had abortions in eastern Guangdong.

In April, the area's Party secretary told his subordinates that if they failed to make family limitation their priority “a great disaster would strike the country.” Setting a target of 47,000 abortions, he observed that although the Party was “working contrary to the will of the people.” its members should treat the emergency like a military campaign in which all actions leading to victory were acceptable. ■

He assured them there would be no investigation of complaints, “Zhengming” reported. Targets for the drive were all women pregnant without permission. Last year Guangdong province. officials proclaimed that “it is necessary to criticise and educate those who do not practise planned parenthood,” and threatened those who refused to comply with disciplinary action. Guangdong’s proclamation formed part of a national effort, now known to be faltering, based on the prediction that unless the 1975 level of three children per

family was sharply reduced. China's population would equal the present world’s total within 100 years.

As a result of this forecast, according to “Zhengming,” the Eastern Guangdong Party “adopted a policy of dealing with the enemy.” Pregnant women .were enclosed in the “open” (a Cultural Revolution term for a political prison) where each woman endured abuse from [pur or five officials. Others, at public rallies, were pressured to submit to abortion. Some women were abducted from their villages and carried away by truck to local hospitals. “Wherever the vehicles went,” “Zhengming’’ says, “the pregnant women were all panic stricken. The vehicles were filled with wailing noises ...

and hospital wards were even more terrible."

Other witnesses reported women being handcuffed or despatched to hospital in pig baskets. All victims were compelled to pay their own transportation costs together with the expenses of their guards, some of whom were armed. Warrants were issued for pregnant women and their names entered under the heading of "criminal.”

Those who refused abortion found their water and electricity cut off and their front do’ors sealed. Fines equal to several years pay were levied and televisions, bicycles, and other personal property seized. If women fled, their husbands were imprisoned until their wives returned and underwent their abortions.

Zhengming’s reporter alleges that the provincial Party is masking the local excesses for fear of political scandal. Copyright — London "Observer” Service.