The Associated Press (AP) reports that new evidence from China demonstrates a widespread regime of coercive “family planning” and forced abortion for minority populations. In 2015, China allegedly ended the brutal and inhumane one-child policy that inflicted injustice and loss of Life through forced abortion for decades. However, despite the change, likely due to demographic concerns not humanitarian motivations, Pro-Lifers warned at the time that the anti-Life regime of “family planning” would likely continue.
The new report from the AP confirms that coerced use of birth control, sterilization, and even ending the lives of preborn babies in abortion continues in China and that these draconian, anti-Life practices are much more widespread and systemic than many people realized. The findings come from government statistics, state documents, and interviews with 30 people previously detained by the government.
Disturbingly, the emerging evidence suggests that the deadly policies are being used by the Chinese government to suppress ethnic minorities, especially the Uighurs in Xinjiang. Although the Chinese Communist Party has relaxed policies and even begun to actively encourage increased family size for the majority of the Chinese population, at the same time, policies have become much more strictly enforced for minorities. The severity of the regime and the loss of preborn Life for certain populations within China has been described by some as “demographic genocide.”
The AP’s investigation found, “The state regularly subjects minority women to pregnancy checks, and forces intrauterine devices, sterilization and even abortion on hundreds of thousands.” At the same time, there are an estimated one million Uighurs in detention camps, many of them sent to these state-run prisons for having too many children. In fact, according to the report, “Having too many children is a major reason people are sent to detention camps, the AP found, with the parents of three or more ripped away from their families unless they can pay huge fines. Police raid homes, terrifying parents as they search for hidden children.”
One man with seven children was imprisoned for seven years, one year for each child. A family member told the AP, “My cousin spent all his time taking care of his family, he never took part in any political movements. How can you get seven years in prison for having too many children? We’re living in the 21st century—this is unimaginable.”
One woman, Gulnar Omirzakh, sat for an interview describing the terrifying experience of being subjected to government scrutiny and punishment under the unjust regime. After giving birth to her third child in 2015, Omirzakh says the government ordered her to have an IUD inserted. Despite being forced to follow this mandate, she faced further scrutiny in 2018 when government officials in military uniform came to her house. After finding her three children, the AP reports, “They gave Omirzakh, the penniless wife of a detained vegetable trader, three days to pay a $2,685 fine for having more than two children.”
“God bequeaths children on you. To prevent people from having children is wrong,” said Omirzakh, moved to tears in the interview. She added, “They want to destroy us as a people.” The other interviews conducted by the AP coupled with shocking statistics demonstrate that Omirzakh’s case is not an isolated incident. Investigation found that in some areas of China with significant minority populations, birth rates fell more than 60% between 2015 and 2018.
The massive demographic shift is anything but coincidental. China scholar Adrian Zenz shared forthcoming research with the AP showing that Xinjiang went from being one of the fastest-growing regions to one of the slowest in the span of a few years. Zenz said, “This kind of drop is unprecedented….there’s a ruthlessness to it. This is part of a wider control campaign to subjugate the Uighurs.”
Another scholar, Joanne Smith Finley of Newcastle University in the United Kingdom, did not mince words. She told the AP, “It’s genocide, full stop. It’s not immediate, shocking, mass-killing on the spot type genocide, but it’s slow, painful, creeping genocide. These are direct means of genetically reducing the Uighur population.”
Through interviews, leaked data, and local government notices and documents, the AP found widespread evidence of systemic abuse, injustice, and continued loss of Life through forced abortion. Finally, the world has seen evidence of one of the most anti-Life political regimes and the ongoing carnage caused. The time has come to do something to defend the innocent.
