VOA: U.S. Congressman opposed to compulsory abortion; Hunan family planning official threatening the pregnant mother

Translated by China Aid Association

Voice of America, Chinese language    Xiao Bei, June 6, 2009

Having received attention from a US Congressman due to threatened abortion by the government, Cao Ruyi, a pregnant woman from Hunan, China and her husband Li Fu were held by force at Hunan Provincial Maternal and Child Care Hospital and threatened with retaliation by family planning officials.

New York-based human rights organization “Women’s Rights in China” has been closely watching Cao Ruyi and her husband’s situation. Zhang Jing, the director of the organization, told Voice of America that because Cao Ruyi’s situation was made know to people in the US and elicited the concern of a US Congressman, the local family planning officials of Hunan were infuriated.

Zhang Jing said, “ After the US Congressman spread the news about this case, Zhang Yan, the Director of the Family Planning Office of Changsha Kaifu District Tourism Bureau threatened Cao Ruyi, saying, ‘ You elicited people from overseas to threaten us. I will thoroughly investigate it. I have a bunch of friends in the military. I’ll use my way to handle this.’ ”

US Congressman Smith wrote a letter to Hunan family planning officials and the Mayor of Changsha City, urging them to stop compulsory abortion and guarantee the physical safety of the couple. Zhang Jing said that Zhang Yan was assigned to be in charge of Cao Ruyi’s abortion case. Local official held Cao Ruyi and her husband at a hospital and would not allow them to go home. They would have compulsory abortion performed on her as soon as she recovered from the non-stop diarrhea she was struggling with.

Zhang Jing told us that Li Fu is Cao Ruyi’ssecond husband. She has a child from her previous marriage. The court gave the child’s custody to her previous husband at their divorce. Now, she is five months into pregnancy and this is her first child with her current husband Li Fu. Yet the government still considers this a “second child” outside “family planning” and demands them to abort the baby.

According to Li Fu, local family planning officials dragged Cao Ruyi at the hospital. He himself was also beaten up by family planning staff.

http://www.voachinese.com/content/hunan-couple-20120609/1205491.html


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VOA: U.S. Congressman opposed to compulsory abortion; Hunan family planning official threatening the pregnant mother

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