Forced Abortion Still A Reality in China Says New Amnesty Report

Testimony given by former members of China's Planned-Birth Office indicate an aggressive policy of coercion and abortion. Gao Xiao Duan, a PBO officer had this to say before the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights of the Government Reform and Oversight Committee of the United States House of Representatives:

The routine of the PBO is as follows:

I. To establish a computer data bank of all women of child- bearing age in the town (10,000+ women), including their dates of birth, marriages, children, contraceptive ring insertions, pregnancies, abortions, child-bearing capabilities, etc.

II. To issue "birth-allowed certificates" to women who meet the policy and regulations of the central and provincial planned- birth committees, and are therefore allowed to give birth to children. (ATTACHMENT 2A). Without a certificate, women are not allowed to give birth to children. Should a woman be found pregnant without a certificate, abortion surgery is performed immediately, regardless of how many months she is pregnant. (ATTACHMENT 2B)

[snip]

IX. Whenever the PBO calls for organizing "planned-birth supervision teams," the town head and communist party committee secretary will immediately order all organizations--public security, court, finance, economy -- to select cadres and organize them into these teams. They are then sent to villages or areas where problems are expected, either for routine door-to- door checking or for swift checking of local violators. Supervision teams are makeshift, and, to avoid leaks, cadres do not know which village they will be sent to until the last minute. Planned-birth supervision teams usually exercise night raids, encircling suspected households with lightning speed. Should they fail to apprehend a woman violator, they catch her husband, brother(s), parent(s) in lieu of the woman herself, and detain them in the PBO's detention room to force the woman into surrendering herself. We then would perform a sterilization or abortion surgery on her.

[snip]

Once I found a woman who was 9 months pregnant, but did not have a birth-allowed certificate. According to the policy, she was forced to undergo an abortion surgery. In the operation room I saw how the aborted child's lips were sucking, how its limbs were stretching. A physician injected poison into its skull, and the child died, and it was thrown into the trash can. To help a tyrant do evils was not what I wanted. I could not bear seeing all those mothers grief-stricken by induced delivery and sterilization. I could not live with this on my conscience. I, too, after all, am a mother.

All of those 14 years, I was a monster in the daytime, injuring others by the Chinese communist authorities' barbaric planned- birth policy, but in the evening, I was like all other women and mothers, enjoying my life with my children. I could not five such a dual life anymore. Here, to all those injured women, to all those children who were killed, I want to repent and say sincerely that I'm sorry! I want to be a real human being. It is also my sincere hope that what I describe here today can lead you to give your attention to this issue, so that you could extend your arms to save China's women and children.