Chinese Officials Abduct Woman, Threaten Forced Abortion

International   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jun 8, 2012   |   12:44PM   |   Beijing, China

Chen Guangcheng may have made it to the United States safely, after fleeing Chinese persecution against him for exposing campaigns of thousands of forced abortions and sterilizations, but the persecution continues.

The human rights group ChinaAid, which worked closely with Chen to help him leave China, has learned that a 37-year-old woman, Cao Ruyi, was dragged from her home and beaten on the morning of June 6 by more than a dozen Chinese family planning officials. The mother, pregnant with a five month old child, was accused of violating China’s “one child” policy because she and her husband, Li Fu, already have a six-year-old daughter.

According to Li, his wife is being detained at the Maternal and Child Health hospital in Changsha city, the capital of Hunan province. Family planning officials are threatening to forcibly abort Cao Ruyi’s pregnancy if she does not voluntarily consent to an abortion. Both the husband and wife want to keep their baby and are refusing to cooperate.

Li said he was beaten by security officials on the way to the hospital, as his wife was being dragged to there.

Bob Fu, a former resident of China now living in the United States, who heads ChinaAid, spent time talking with the family planning office chief and tried to persuade her to show Cao mercy. She was very stubborn and told Bob Fu unless the couple pay about US $23,500(RMB150,000) according to the “law” for a “social burden” fee, she and her colleagues will “try their best for as long as possible to let her abort the baby voluntarily.”

“President Hu Jintao promised the world that forced abortions in China did not exist, but they do occur frequently and are an assault on millions of Chinese women and their families,” Fu said. “Such barbaric acts cannot continue to occur in China without international condemnation and action. We urge diplomats in China, and the global press, to call attention to Cao Ruyi’s case and help protect her and her unborn child.”

“The blind self-taught lawyer Mr. Chen Guangcheng had fled to New York city with his family last month after years of severe persecution because he exposed the atrocities of forced sterilizations and forced abortions driven by the Chinese government’s notorious One Child Policy,” Fu added. “But who will stand inside China to follow Chen’s legacy and defend those women and children’s rights?”

The phone number of the hospital is +86-731-8433-2238 and the address is No. 53 Xiangchun Road, Changsha city, Hunan province.