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| Hu Xia, another mother forced to abort her child, in the hospital (Photo courtesy of ChinaAid) |
China (MNN) ― After an emergency vote last Thursday, July 5, the European Parliament passed a “resolution on the forced abortion scandal in China” that “strongly condemns” officials in the forced abortion case of seven-months-pregnant Feng Jianmei.
According to the resolution, “On 2 June 2012 a seven-months-pregnant woman, Feng Jianmei, was abducted and underwent a forced abortion in Zhenping county (Shanxi [sic] province), sparking a wave of indignation and condemnation in China and around the world…”
Bob Fu, President of ChinaAid Association, says this is the first time the European Parliament has passed a resolution like this, but it’s a huge milestone. “Because the European Union is a huge countries block, it really has support of the international affairs.... It is really important for this voice to be heard. It sends a much stronger signal to the Chinese government that the whole world is now united against this brutal practice of one-child policy, forced abortion, and forced sterilization.”
Fu goes on to say, “I think it will also encourage more Chinese victims to come up to tell their stories, and it will put pressure at least temporarily [on] the local family planning officials to be more careful when they try to do these kind of forced abortion, forced sterilization cases.”
The resolution urges the European Union to discuss the violation of human rights in these forced abortion cases with China in the next round of bilateral human rights dialogue.
However, the resolution didn’t cover everything. According to Fu, “It fell short in the sense [of] condemning the whole China family planning system. In the resolution, it still contends the language….It does not really condemn China’s brutal family planning system of the one-child policy.”
Feng Jainmei and her husband are Christians, and Fu says their family continues to suffer persecution. Their case only begins to scratch the surface of what China and the church there has been facing for over thirty years since the one-child policy was enacted.
Fu shares, “I have received lots of reports from churches in the past. One pastor told me his wife was dragged to the hospital by the family planning officials and, with a poison drug injection into their eight-month-pregnant baby, killed their son. So I was on the phone when that was happening with that pastor in the hospital.”
The Chinese government has prevented the birth of 400 million children since the one-child policy started 30 years ago. With 5.7 million Jews killed in the World War II Holocaust, that is equivalent to losing the population from the Holocaust 70 times over.
Fu says the Chinese church has mostly kept silent, until now. “The churches are now having a wake-up call.... Because of the enormous suppression and the enormous propaganda by the Chinese government, most of the people chose to be silent, because if you dare to speak up, you will face lots of retributions: you will lose your job, lose your property, lose everything. And not only the husband and wife involved, but also family members, the grandparents, your neighbors, all will be part of the calamity if you are found in violation of the one-child policy.”
“Chinese women have the highest suicide rate in the whole world, partially--even according to the Chinese government scholars--because of this traumatic experience of forced abortion,” states Fu. “They need the Gospel of Christ to really bring healing and to comfort their hearts, knowing the Lord has remembered her and her baby. Otherwise, there’s going to be more disaster.”
The Gospel is desperately needed. “This is a matter of life and death, and especially the value of life [is] deeply rooted from the perspective of the Gospel,” states Fu. “There’s no other way to explain why a baby’s life is so precious in his or her mother’s womb except to recognize the image of God, the ‘imago Dei.’ Every human being bears that image, and that is directly from Scripture.”
Fu poses the echoing question, “If the church does not stand up for life, who will? And if the church refuses to speak up and refuses to fight for life, who will?”
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