China woman in legal first over abortion case

By Richard Spencer in Beijing
Last Updated: 1:29am GMT 07/01/2008

A Chinese woman who was forced to have an abortion despite being nine months pregnant is suing the authorities for their actions.

Jin Yani’s waters had already broken when China’s abortion police came for her. They took her to a nearby abortion centre, injected her unborn baby girl and removed the body two days later.

Mrs Jin’s crime was to have become pregnant by her fiance five months before she married him at the age of 20, the legal minimum.
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Pregnancy outside marriage is illegal. But forced abortions are now supposed to be illegal in China.

In a blow against the state’s brutally imposed one-child policy, she and her husband are claiming danmages against the authorities, saying that officials acted unlawfully.

China’s higher courts have agreed to hear the plea – the first time this has happened in a case of this kind.

Yang Zhongchen, her husband, tried to prevent the abortion by wining and dining officials in Hebei province. He also agreed to pay a fine of £650, but none of this prevented Changli county family planning officials arriving on Sept 7, 2000.

Mrs Jin said: “I got on my knees and begged them after they took me to the clinic and said I wanted to give birth to my daughter. I had already named her Yang Yin.”

In the clinic, she was injected with a large syringe. Her husband arrived in time to witness the removal of the dead foetus with forceps two days later.

Mrs Jin lost blood, and was hospitalised for 44 days. Her husband was charged for the medicine she needed. He said that his wife is now infertile as a result of the abortion.

Mr Yang has demanded £85,000 to cover medical expenses, psychological distress and Mrs Jin’s inability to conceive.

At first the case got nowhere, but the regional people’s court agreed to hear the couple’s appeal in October. At that point, Mr Yang said that officials made contact offering him a job and free hospital treatment for his wife. But that is not enough, he said.

“They have made no mention of damages,” he said while on a visit to Beijing to meet his lawyer. “We can get a job anywhere.”

But the couple say they can never truly be compensated.

“Our baby will never come back,” Mrs Jin said. “We just hope this kind of thing will never happen again.”

AP: China reinforces one-child policy

* Story Highlights
* 500 people have been expelled from Communist Party for defying one-child policy
* More than 93,000 people in Hubei province violated the policy last year
* Rich and powerful in central China are brazenly flouting the policy
* Policy has been in place for almost 30 years in attempt to control population growth

BEIJING, China (AP) — Authorities in central China have expelled 500 people from the Communist Party for defying the country’s one-child policy, state media said Monday.

More than 93,000 people in Hubei province violated the policy last year, including hundreds of officials, lawmakers and political advisers, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

China has been trying to crack down on officials and the wealthy who ignore its strict family planning laws. Expulsion from the party could end a political career or prohibit promotions.

Xinhua said 395 offenders were dismissed from their posts, but it wasn’t immediately clear if they were included in the 500 who were expelled from the Communist Party. It also wasn’t clear if the offenders were additionally penalized. Fines are another common punishment for violating the one-child policy.

Under the policy, implemented in the late 1970s, most urban couples are limited to one child and rural families to two to control population growth and conserve natural resources.

China’s 1.3 billion people account for 20 percent of the world’s total. The government has set growth targets, pledging to keep the population under 1.36 billion in 2010, and under 1.45 billion in 2020.

But rising incomes mean some of the newly rich — such as businessmen and entertainment stars — can afford to break the rules and pay the resulting fines.

“More party members, celebrities, and well-off people are violating the policies in recent years, which has undermined social equality,” Yang Youwang, director of Hubei’s family planning commission, was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

Telephone calls to the provincial family planning commission and provincial Communist Party office were not answered.

Last week, state media reported that family planning officials in Hubei were powerless against the number of people who were brazenly flouting the rules. In one case, a person was fined $106,000 for having a second child, the highest amount ever in Hubei, but had paid only $14,000, the report said.

Government figures from October show that there are 73.76 million party members out of China’s 1.3 billion people.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.