YouTube Video Shows Horror of China's One-Child Policy
By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
A YouTube video of the harrowing ordeal of a Chinese couple forced to abort their unborn son at eight months shows the heartrending personal tragedy caused by the brutal enforcement of China's one-child policy, according to the founder of the advocacy group All Girls Allowed (AGA).
The story was reported by the Al-Jazeera Network, which posted its eight-minute interview with the distraught father, as well as its news report on the incident in the coastal city of Xiamen, on its blog.
In the interview, which was posted with English subtitles, the father painfully recounts the four-day ordeal during which his wife, who was in her eighth month of pregnancy with their second child, was beaten and kicked in the stomach and then forcibly taken to an abortion clinic, where her unborn child was killed by lethal injection.
The traumatized mother would not allow herself to be shown on camera, and the Al-Jazeera report showed only her pregnant belly as she waited in the hospital to deliver her dead baby.
"I don't know how I can possibly explain to her what has happened," the father said of their 10-year-old first-born, who has been eagerly awaiting the birth of her baby brother.
According to Al Jazeera, the couple, Luo Yan Qua and Xiao Ai Ying, do not even know how their story got posted on the internet, which raises the possibility that someone in the government, who was aware of their situation and sympathetic to their plight, secretly released the information on a popular Chinese website which is similar to Twitter.
"Our hearts are broken again," said AGA founder Chai Ling, "for this family, for the suffering mother, father, and their innocent daughter, who is about to learn the cruel truth of the one-child policy through the fate of her baby brother whom she will never meet."
This is not an isolated incident. According to China's own official statistics, at least 35,000 abortions are performed every day, or about one every 2.5 seconds.
"We urge all people and leaders of the free world to view this video and hear the cries of the parents and this unborn child who was simply murdered," said Chai. "How long will the world turn a blind eye to this inhumane policy?"
Chai, who was a top student leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy movement, founded AGA in June 2010 to fight for an end to the 30-year-old family planning policy. The Boston-based group's mission is to restore life, value and dignity to girls and mothers in China, and to expose the cruelty of the one-child policy. More information, including how to get involved, can be found at the AGA website.
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