.png)
The one-child policy, 30 years after its inception, will stay, the Chinese regime said in official state media reports on Monday. In the photo, hundreds of Chinese babies accompanied by their parents prepare to take part in a baby swimming contest. (STR/Getty Images)
The one-child policy, 30 years after its inception, will stay, the Chinese regime said in official state media reports on Monday.
"Anyone who illegally gave birth to a second child would be punished, and the penalties would be dismissal from school, a downgrade in wages, or a fine," said Chinese resident Han Mei, speaking to AFP.
"If you didn't have money to pay the fine, your house would be demolished or the furniture and appliances moved away by the family planning officials," she said.
Han, whose real name has been changed due to sensitivity, became pregnant with a second child and said that if the communist authorities found out, she could be severely punished.
During the pregnancy of her first child, Han was able to go to the hospital and report to the family planning officials that she had a child. With her second birth, she had to keep it secret from her employers and pay for a cesarian section herself. Currently, the family planning officials do not have any knowledge of her second child.
As a result of the policy, human rights experts say there has been a sharp increase in forced abortions. One group, Libertarian think tank the Cato Institute, said that in 1999, between 5 and 10 million abortions have been done under the policy.
Another nonprofit estimates even higher numbers. "[We are] fairly certain most of [the 13 million yearly abortions in China] are forced abortions," says Colin Mason, who conducted field work in Guangdong and Guangxi Provinces in March of this year for the nonprofit Virginia-based Population Research Institute.
The organization says that Chinese officials, when dealing with second pregnancies, force women to have an abortion even in the ninth month of pregnancy, and even sterilize them.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in April 2009 that forced abortions in China are "absolutely unacceptable" and "an egregious interference with women's rights."
On the site Women's Rights Without Frontiers, the issue with the policy mainly "lies with the coercive enforcement of the birth limit, whatever that limit might be." The site said officials force women to have abortions even in the ninth month of pregnancy or even sterilize them.
