In China, Woman Forced To Have Abortion Goes to Court in Legal First
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
BEIJING — Jin Yani was nine months pregnant, and her water had already broken when China’s abortion police came for her.
They took her to a nearby abortion center, injected her unborn baby girl, and removed the body two days later.
Mrs. Jin’s crime was to have become pregnant by her fiancé of five months before she married him at the age of 20, the legal minimum. Pregnancy outside marriage is illegal. But forced abortions are now supposed to be illegal in China.
In a blow against the state’s brutally imposed one-child policy, she and her husband are claiming damages against the authorities, saying that officials acted unlawfully. China’s higher courts have agreed to hear the plea — the first time this has happened in a case of this kind.
Yang Zhongchen, her husband, did all he could to prevent the abortion. He tried to win favor with officials in Hebei province by wining and dining them. He agreed to pay a fine of $1,280, but none of this prevented 10 family planning officials from the Changli county government arriving on September 7, 2000.
Mrs. Jin said, “I got on my knees and begged them after they took me to the clinic and said I wanted to give birth to my daughter. I had already named her Yang Yin.”
In the clinic, she was injected with a large syringe. Her husband arrived in time to witness the removal of the dead fetus with forceps two days later.
Mrs. Jin lost blood, and was hospitalized for 44 days. Her husband was charged for the medicine she needed. He said that his wife is now infertile as a result of the abortion. Mr. Yang has demanded $167,400 to cover medical expenses, psychological distress, and Mrs. Jin’s inability to conceive.
At first the case got nowhere, but the regional people’s court agreed to hear the couple’s appeal in October. At that point, Mr. Yang said officials made contact and offered him a job and free hospital treatment for his wife. But that is not enough, he said. “They have made no mention of damages,” he said while on a visit to Beijing to meet his lawyer. “We can get a job anywhere.”
But the couple says they can never truly be compensated. “Our baby will never come back,” Mrs. Jin said.
