Recently, All Girls Allowed posted a video from Al-Jazeera News that showed the story of a couple forced to abort an eight month old child and undergo painful police abuse: http://www.allgirlsallowed.org/pregnant-woman-beaten-chinese-officials-8-month-old-aborted . This is the continued story of Ms. Xiao Aiying and Mr. Luo Yanquan.
Two AGA volunteers visited Xiamen on November 2nd to investigate the forced abortion performed on Ms. Xiao Aiying. The next morning, we interviewed the victim’s husband, Mr. Luo Yanquan. We explained our aim in Xiamen to express support of All Girls Allowed and Women’s Rights in China, and to provide aid and legal assistance. Fearful of pressure from local government, Mr. Luo had to think over the matter before answering us. However, he did express gratitude for our concern.
We asked to visit the victim, Ms. Xiao, who was still hospitalized. Mr. Luo told us that Ms. Xiao remained under heavy surveillance at the time; moreover, he had promised the government to remain quiet. He had already been warned not to discuss the matter with “outsiders”. Yet he agreed to allow AGA’s local workers to interview him about the case. Below is Mr. Luo’s retelling to AGA workers of Ms. Xiao’s forced abortion:
At around 9:00 PM on October 10th, I received a phone call from my wife. She said urgently, “Come home quickly! A dozen young men came to the house to take me away. Come quick!” I came home in a hurry from a friend’s house. On the way I kept dialing my wife’s number but could get nothing but busy signals. I reasoned that the Birth Planning Committee must have arrested my wife, who was already eight months pregnant.
There was no trace of my wife when I arrived at home. I hurried to the local Residential Committee to ask for her whereabouts. They took me to the Yuandang Street Birth Planning Department. The door was shut solid there. Despite my entreaties, the guard would not let me through without authorization from higher-ups.
After waiting in front of the gate for 30 minutes, I finally received another phone call from my wife. Her phone had been confiscated when she was arrested. She was now being detained in a room on the third floor of the building. We were accused of violating the Birth Planning policies. Our child, eight months in the womb, would be aborted!
I was dumbfounded. How could an eight months long pregnancy be aborted? After a sleepless night, the next morning I exhausted all of contacts with friends and relatives to look for any connection with the power to save our unborn child. By 4:00 PM, I still hadn’t found anyone able to help.
Finally I came to the committee that was holding my wife. I entreated the Committee Director Lei Jingfeng, begging him to spare my child, who was already eight months in the womb. I had never imagined that Director Lei would have the gall to threaten me many times and give me an ultimatum. A second pregnancy (we also had a nine-year-old daughter) was illegal and must be aborted. Whether the pregnancy was at eight months or even nine months made no difference.
On the morning of the 12th, I went back to Lei’s office to reason with him. At 9:00 am, before I could debate with him on the points of the policy, more than ten law enforcement agents forcibly ejected me from the office and left me downstairs. I called my wife’s phone to try to comfort her, but got busy signals again. An ominous feeling overcame me. I rushed up the fire escape stairs to the third floor where my wife was being held.
I called her name through two steel doors. She shouted back. Her voice filled with pain and sorrow. “They are choking me and kicking my stomach!” I was furious. I banged on the steel gates again and again. “She’s not a criminal! You cannot do this.” At this moment, seven or eight agents took me away again. No matter how I much I begged them, they would not let me see my wife.
I called the police emergency number with a slim, desperate hope that the regular police could provide some help. It wasn’t until half an hour later that a policeman showed up on the scene. He didn’t take any notes or gather any evidence, but rather told me bluntly that this was a matter for the Birth Planning Committee and outside of his jurisdiction. He left as nonchalantly as he came. By this time my wife had been arrested and held for more than 40 hours. I saw that my wife’s arms and legs were covered with bruises. I begged the office to call for a doctor to look after her. They flatly refused. As she was complaining of stomach pain after being kicked, I had to call for emergency medical service, which arrived several minutes later. Even then, the Birth Planning Committee wouldn’t let the doctors through. It was the Committee’s authority, which even the doctors could not intrude upon. As the doctors were leaving, they said to me with resignation that there was nothing they could do.
At 1:30 AM that night (October 12th), my wife called me to give me the news. To avoid interference from family members, it was government policy to perform abortion operations at night. They had already injected abortion chemicals into her womb. At 11pm on October 14th, after 40 hours of painful contractions, the poisoned baby came out.
The following morning, the AGA volunteers visited Xiamen No. 1 Hospital, Siming Annex—the same building in which Ms. Xiao’s abortion operation was performed). They planned to shoot footage of Ms. Xiao in her hospital ward but could not find out her exact location. Instead, they photographed the operation room and the interior of the hospital before leaving. Afterwards, they sent an attorney to contact Mr. Luo again and to offer AGA’s assistance. He expressed thanks and would contact AGA in the future if needed.
