China Bans One-Child Family Planning Slogans Demeaning Human Life 
Email this article
Printer friendly page
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 5, 2007
Beijing, China (LifeNews.com) — In a cosmetic move meant to foster better public relations in advance of next year’s Summer Olympics, the government of China has banned slogans demeaning human life that are a part of its family planning regime.
The nation has been criticized for decades for allowing families to bear just one child, and severely punishing offenders.
The ban is a reaction to some of the violent policies of rural family planning officials, who frequently employ brutal campaigns of forced abortions and sterilizations or other forms of intimidation to enforce family planning goals.
Under the new ban, rural officials can’t use public slogans such as "Raise fewer babies but more piggies," or "One more baby means one more tomb."
According to the government’s Xinhua news agency, the National Population and Family Planning Commission has come up with 190 acceptable slogans meant to promote the one-child policy in a more positive way.
Other prohibited slogans more directly hit on the forced abortion problems, such as "Houses toppled, cows confiscated, if abortion demand rejected."
Instead, according to Xinhua, officials should use banners with sayings like "Mother Earth is too tired to sustain more children" and "Both boys and girls are parents’ hearts."
The government said the problematic advertising for the campaign could lead to "public complaint and resentment."
China established the coercive family planning policy in 1979 and Chinese women and families have been the victims of an intense campaign ever since.
It has also caused a myriad of other problems as the Asian nation is sees it’s population tilt towards the old and there may not be enough younger workers to provide for its elderly citizens.
China is also seeing its male-female ratio worsening as its people use infanticide and sex-selection abortions to give birth to boy babies.
China currently has a male-female ratio of 119-100 while the number is closer to 103-100 in most industrialized nations. The figure is as high as 130-100 in some rural areas where a preference for boys is stronger to carry on the family name and work the family farm.
As a result of the gender imbalance, large numbers of Chinese man are finding it difficult to get married. The general imbalanced has also caused an increase in crime, selling of girl babies, prostitution and forcing women into sexual slavery or domestic positions.
Some girls are even sold or given away in order for Chinese families to have one son to comply with the family planning rules.
Chinese couples determined to have a son easily get around the new laws as a black market has sprung up of people with ultrasound machines in the trunks of cars or house closets are willing to divulge the sex of an unborn baby for a price.
Ironically, China distributed ultrasound machines to local clinics on a wide scale after the coercive family planning policy was instituted to ensure women were not pregnant and violating the one-child program.
