|
The forced abortion of Feng Jianmei () occurred on June 2, 2012, while Ms. Feng was seven months pregnant with her second child. The forced abortion was carried out in Zhenping county in China's Shaanxi province. Local officials had demanded that Feng and her husband pay a 40,000 yuan fine for violating the nation's one-child policy. When they were unable to do so, authorities arrested Feng, made her sign an agreement to have an abortion, and held her down while injecting her with an abortifacient. Feng was reportedly traumatized by the incident and in poor health afterwards. On June 11, Feng's family posted graphic pictures of her stillborn child. The images soon became a viral phenomenon, sparking controversy within China and drawing international attention to the issue of forced abortions. In response to national and international attention, the Chinese government launched an investigation. On June 26, the investigation determined that Feng was not legally entitled to a second child, but that her rights had nonetheless been violated by the local family planning bureau. Two officials were fired and five others punished. On June 27, the National Population and Family Planning Commission announced it would send inspection teams across China to review the practices of local family planning divisions. Feng's husband, Deng Jiyuan (), hired a lawyer to pursue criminal charges, but ultimately the family decided to settle out of court. The incident has led to increased scrutiny of China's one-child policy, both nationally and internationally. Feng's case has been cited in editorials critical of the one-child policy, and has also been used as an example of how the Internet is empowering ordinary people in an environment of government censorship. On July 5, European Parliament passed a resolution condemning both Feng's case and forced abortion in general. On 29 October 2015, it was announced that the one-child policy will end after 36 years and will be replaced with a two-child policy.〔http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-34665539〕 ==Background== Since 1979, Chinese couples have been limited to one child by law in order to control the country's population. Families living in rural areas, as well as those with an ethnic minority background, can often receive an exemption from the law and have a second child without penalty. Otherwise, couples who have two or more children are required to pay a fine to the government. According to He Yafu, an independent demographer, such fines are common and "have become a major source of profit for family planning authorities" in recent years.〔 He adds that the fines allow wealthy families to have extra children while forcing poorer families into involuntary abortions.〔 The fines generate an estimated 20 billion yuan per year in revenue for the government.〔 He Yafu estimates that over 2 trillion yuan (~$314 billion USD) has been collected since 1980.〔 China's Population and Family Planning Law prohibits infringement on people's personal rights and property for family planning purposes.〔 Moreover, a 2001 law prohibited abortions after the sixth month of pregnancy.〔 Nevertheless, human rights groups and critics of the one-child policy say that these laws are inconsistently enforced, and the local officials in many areas still carry out forced sterilizations and/or coerced abortions, sometimes in the third trimester after the fetus has reached viability.〔〔〔Congressional-Executive Commission on China, (2008 Annual Report ), 31 October 2008, p 98.〕 In ten Chinese provinces, including Shaanxi, authorities are permitted to take "remedial measures" to ensure that birth quotas are not exceeded. In eight other provinces, authorities are required to terminate unauthorized pregnancies.〔 Activists such as Chen Guangcheng have been jailed by the Chinese government for bringing to light evidence of forced abortions. In 2005, Chen filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of women forced into sterilization or abortions and subsequently spent seven years in jail or under house arrest before emigrating to the United States in 2012. In October 2011, Feng Jianmei, a 22-year-old woman from the small village of Yuping in Zeng Jia Township, Shaanxi province, became pregnant with her second child.〔 She had married in 2006 and given birth to a girl in 2007. Acting on the advice of relatives, Feng and her husband, Deng Jiyuan, believed they would be allowed to have a second child since they had waited five years between children and lived in a rural area. According to Zhenping County officials, Feng was contacted in March 2012 and told she needed to obtain documentation, including a new hukou (household registration), in order to file an application to have the child.〔 Her family denies this, saying that officials did not notify them until several days before the abortion was induced.〔 Around May 28, local family planning officials phoned Feng to try to persuade her to have an abortion.〔 The attempt was unsuccessful, so on May 30 they visited the family house while Feng's husband was away at work. At first, authorities tried to persuade her to voluntarily have an abortion.〔 After several hours, she told the officials she was going out to buy food, and left them in her living room.〔 Instead, she went to an aunt's house, but around 15 officials followed her.〔 They did not immediately arrest Feng, instead setting up shifts to keep watch over her at the aunt's house. Early the next morning, Feng escaped, causing the guards to panic.〔 She flagged down a van and persuaded the driver to help her.〔 The driver let her out down the road, and Feng hid in hillside brush for the next 14 hours, waiting for the cover of darkness in the cold and rainy weather.〔〔 When night came, she went to a relative's house in the countryside, where she hid under the bed.〔 Authorities from the family planning office found her regardless, and allegedly assaulted her.〔〔 They let her get a night's sleep before taking her to the hospital on June 2. Several witnesses reported that four men carried Feng out of the house with a pillowcase over her head.〔 Simultaneously, family planning officials were in communication with Feng's husband, Deng Jiyuan. On June 1, they demanded Deng transfer his wife's residency status the next day or else make a 100,000 yuan (US$15,700) payment to the birth-planning social security fund.〔 Transferring the residency status in one day was impossible, but Deng managed to negotiate the payment down to 30,000 yuan before returning to Zhenping County. He actually only had 18,000 yuan that he had borrowed from work, but hoped an IOU would cover the balance.〔 On his way back, Deng received a text message stipulating that the fee had to be paid immediately, and that it would be 40,000 yuan "not a penny less."〔 Other family members received similar text messages.〔 At the hospital, Feng was forcibly made to apply her thumbprint to a consent form and sign a document authorizing the abortion.〔 "There were two men, one grabbed my left side, the other my right, they forced me to sign my name with my right hand, and they forcibly applied the fingerprint with my other hand," she later recalled.〔 She was taken into an operating room and restrained by two men as she was injected with a poison to kill the fetus.〔〔 She later told All Girls Allowed, an American group which campaigns against the one-child policy, "I could feel the baby jumping around inside me all the time, but then she went still."〔 Feng was seven months pregnant at the time, making any abortion, voluntary or not, illegal under Chinese law.〔 No family members were allowed to be present for the procedure.〔 After the child died of hypoxia, labor was induced and Feng delivered a stillborn girl on June 4.〔 Feng later told All Girls Allowed: "It was much more painful than my first childbirth. The baby was lifeless, and she was all purple and blue." The corpse was then placed next to Feng on her bed for her family to dispose of when they arrived.〔〔 Feng was traumatized by the procedure and smashed the door and cabinetry of a nurse's office in a fit of rage.〔 A week later, Deng told ''The South China Morning Post'', "My wife is not well. She is sad and distressed. Sometimes she becomes emotional and confused."〔 Feng reportedly had a severe headache for several weeks after the abortion and attempted suicide multiple times.〔 On June 15, an uncle told reporters Feng was in poor health and unable to eat.〔 On June 26, Feng was still in the hospital and suffering from headaches.〔 She told reporters that she wanted to go home, but that hospital staff would not allow her to leave. On June 29, her family reported that Feng would be released the next day.〔 However, her condition worsened, and she did not return home until July 10. Deng filed an official complaint with Ankang's petition office.〔 A deputy mayor allegedly told Deng that they would investigate, but when nothing appeared to be happening Deng posted his family's story online.〔 "I'm angry and want justice," Deng later told CNN.〔 Meanwhile, the township officials had prepared a statement that said Feng was of sound mind and body when she signed the consent form authorizing the abortion.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Forced abortion of Feng Jianmei」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|