Hand Out
Feng Jianmei, 22, on her hospital bed after a forced abortion this month in China. The country has a one child policy, and Feng and her husband already have a girl.
Chinese authorities have confirmed the forced abortion for a woman seven months into her second pregnancy ? days after graphic photos of her unborn child?s bloody corpse circulated on the Internet.
The woman?s story sparked outrage and debate over China?s one child policy, which generally limits families to a single offspring ? or face fines.
Forced abortions are among the extreme cases.
Now, the Shaanxi provincial government has vowed to take action after Feng Jianmei told NBC News she was abducted from a relative?s home, blindfolded, forced to sign a document she couldn?t read and injected with two shots that led her to deliver a stillborn baby 30 hours later on June 4.
The government confirmed Thursday to Agence France Presse that the reports are ?basically true,? adding that the case is in violation of regulations banning late-term abortions, which have been in effect in China since 2001.
?This is a serious violation of the National Population and Family Planning Commission?s polices, jeopardizes the population control work and has caused uneasiness in society,? the government writes on its website.
Since pictures of 27-year-old Feng, showing her lying on a hospital bed next to her dead baby, were posted online, the country?s population control methods have come under scrutiny again.
The government introduced its one child policy in 1979 as an effort to rein in the country?s ever-growing population, now at more than 1.3 billion people. Government officials claim China?s population would have soared to more than 1.7 billion without the policy.
Rural couples are allowed to have two children, if the first child is a girl, NBC News reports.
Feng?s husband, Deng Jiyuan, 29, told CNN he was trying to secure a birth permit to allow his wife to have a second child but could not come up with the money ? 40,000 yuan, or about $6,300 ? in time. Deng told the South China Morning Post the payment is ?more than what I earned in four years.?
?I?m angry and want justice,? Deng told CNN. ?They forced her to abort our 7-month-old child ? do they deserve to be called Communist Party officials who serve the people??
The government of Ankang city, where the couple live, said a deputy mayor visited Feng and her husband in the hospital, apologized to them and said officials would be suspended amid an investigation.
"Today, I am here on behalf of the municipal government to see you and express our sincere apology to you. I hope to get your understanding," Deputy Mayor Du Shouping said, according to a statement on the city government's website Friday.
The official Xinhua News Agency says three officials would be relieved of their duties: two top local family planning officials and the head of the township government.
The United States, meanwhile, has publicly expressed opposition to China?s policy of forced abortions.
?We make no secret that the United States strongly oppose all aspects of China?s coercive birth limitation policies, including forced abortion and sterilization, and we always raise these issues with the Chinese government,? State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, according to AFP.
With News Wire Services
rmurray@nydailynews.com
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