China has been required citizens to abide by its one-child policy for 34 years; the anniversary of the policy’s installation has now sparked conversations about forced abortions in the nation.
Reggie Littlejohn, Women’s Rights Without Frontiers has written a letter that condemns the one-child policy and urges President Xi Jinping to abolish it immediately.
"Your government has boasted that it has 'prevented' more than 400 million births through this policy. These births have been prevented through forced abortions, involuntary sterilizations, confiscatory 'terror fines,' gendercide and infanticide — all in violation of international human rights law,” Littlejohn wrote.
The Chinese government has recently altered the policy slightly. In Dec. 2013, a resolution was made that states couples may have two children if they mother and father are both only children themselves. Also, couples in the Chinese countryside may have two children if the first child is a girl.
China has the most skewed ratio of men to women in the world with 117-118 boys born to every 100 girls. The numbers have contributed to human trafficking and gender violence.
Littlejohn wrote, "The Chinese forced abortion policy is systematic, institutionalized violence against women. Because of the sheer numbers involved, it is the most massive women's rights issue in the world today, and it must be stopped.”
Publication date: September 26, 2014
