Reggie Littlejohn of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers spoke in Nashua, New Hampshire in September about China’s one-child policy and the coercion and gender discrimination that accompany it. She said at the time, “In the next month or so [China is] going to announce they’ve moved to a two-child policy. What matters is they’re telling people how many kids to have and they’re enforcing it with forced abortions.”
She called it. The People’s Republic of China made the announcement last week.
Littlejohn said in her New Hampshire speech, “Birth permits are required. No amount of bribery will let you have a child if you’re not married. There’s a waiting period between pregnancies.” Noting that unauthorized births are not registered by the government, she explained that denial of registration means no education or healthcare for the child – “basically illegal aliens in their own country.”
Last week, Littlejohn wrote at some length about China’s policy change. She stressed what hasn’t changed.
“Characterizing this latest modification as ‘abandoning’ the One-Child Policy is misleading. A two-child policy will not end any of the human rights abuses caused by the One Child Policy, including forced abortion, involuntary sterilization or the sex-selective abortion of baby girls….Noticeably absent from the Chinese Communist party’s announcement is any mention of human rights. The Chinese Communist Party has not suddenly developed a conscience or grown a heart. Even though it will now allow all couples to have a second child, China has not promised to end forced abortion, forced sterilization, or forced contraception.
“…In a world laden with compassion fatigue, people are relieved to cross China’s one-child policy off of their list of things to worry about. But we cannot do that. Let us not abandon the women of China, who continue to face forced abortion, and the baby girls of China, who continue to face sex-selective abortion and abandonment. The one-child policy does not need to be modified. It needs to be abolished.”
Read Littlejohn’s full statement on the “two-child” policy here, and browse through the Women’s Rights Without Frontiers web site to learn more about the coalition.
Her Nashua remarks ended with a jarring exhortation. “What would you do if this was going on in Nashua? At least Planned Parenthood doesn’t have police. It’s really hard to get Americans to care about this. God loves China as much as He loves the United States.”
Leaven for the Loaf 