The Seven Sorrows of China, Part III

The Third Sorrow: Abortion Without Conscience: The Indoctrination of a Nation

The individual accounts of the brutality of the one-child policy and its effects on the noble Chinese people are never-ending. One new Chinese convert recounts her terrifying fear while hiding under the bed as the Population Police were at the front door. Another young convert from a distant province testifies how her mother—while she was pregnant with her—jumped the wall of her backyard and fled from the Population Police.

A Catholic missionary describes more of the process of the one-child policy: A certificate of permission is required to have a baby in a Chinese hospital. The government tells you how many children you can have and when. In the city, married couples are limited to one child. In the farming regions a family, if the first child is a girl, can sometimes be permitted to try for a boy as a second child because of the need for boys on the farm. Even in this case, the government will control when they can try for the boy, with the requirement that it be at least five years after the first child. The Government also uses psychological pressure to keep the policy. If a couple in the country have only one child, then this child will probably be able to have two children. The policy varies from region to region.

A couple must go to the hospital with their permission certificate to deliver their child. If they arrive at the hospital without the permission certificate, hospital officials contact the Population Police. At this point, the Police decide, based on the circumstances of the family and the history of the couple, what is to be the fate of the family. The child will be injected with poison on the spot. Or the couple will be fined and their home burnt down. Or the couple could lose their jobs, and in some cases, cause the loss of their employees’ jobs (one teacher told me that if his wife didn’t abort her second child, he and the school principal would both lose their jobs). One Protestant woman refused to abort her second child and lost her own job at the hospital she worked at. Still another possibility is that the child does not receive official recognition that it exists and does not receive the "Chinese Social Security Card." The child therefore is not technically a citizen, nor can he or she go to school or participate in any right of a citizen. One remedy is to try to find a retired and sympathetic midwife who can deliver the child at home. This saves the baby’s life, but does not guarantee his registration.

The missionary went on to give an example of one poor family from a village in Province M: One married couple from a very poor village in the countryside in M had LuLu, a girl, and in the countryside it is permitted to try for a boy if the first child is a girl. So the parents had Xiao Chuan, a boy. All was fine until they had a third child, a boy. At this point, village officials or family planning people came and destroyed the little shack they were living in and tore up their vegetable plot. They had nothing. So they sent LuLu and Xiao Chuan to work on local city streets for an uncle who was selling fruits and vegetables (depending on the season). LuLu and Xiao Chuan would work from early morning til late at night. When they were discovered, a foreign friend tried to teach them a few things there on the street. LuLu would work hard all day and then late at night would return to her aunt and uncle’s apartment, where her aunt would receive a massage from LuLu. The little girl would get up very early and go to bed very late, and all her wages were given to her aunt.

The foreign friend later received permission from the aunt and uncle to put both of these children in school. Subsequently, LuLu quit because, having been away for so long, she found it too difficult. Xiao Chuan has continued until now, getting excellent grades in elementary school. I pray to find a benefactor to fund his middle school.

The examples go on and on. But the most alarming, the most depressing, the most copernican revelation of all that I have been exposed to (including the yet more grisly examples to follow), is the repeated refrain that the great majority of the people in China have lost any concept that there is anything at all wrong with having an abortion. It is considered less significant than a flu shot, a minor procedure like going to the dentist, a simple solution to a simple problem that doesn’t merit any soul searching for any alternative plans. China has become a nation who without conscience aborts their own future generations. And this is Satan’s ultimate victory here. Is this conscience loss regarding the transcendent dignity and inherent right of human life to be blamed exclusively on atheistic Communism? Have not the recent influences of Western morals of secular humanism, materialism, hedonism, and ultimately unmitigated egoism, also contributed to this Chinese terrorism of the womb? In any case, the combination amounts to self-inflicted Chinese genocide, which so saddens the God that creates and loves the ethnical uniqueness of China.

New macabre manifestations of this conscienceless abortion mentality include the recent opening of five restaurants in the region of X, which began serving "fetal soup" at the price of 300 Yuan (approximately $40) a bowl! Recent medical publications have praised the exceptional health benefits for the consuming of "fetal remains" (this jargon allows them to overlook what this really is—unborn baby bodies). Therefore, local entrepreneurs jumped on the opportunity to distribute this new health breakthrough to the chosen few who could afford the price. So evil and scandalous is this fetal soup trade that the Government shut down the Web sites advertising the restaurants, in fear that they would scandalize the reputation of the People’s Republic to outside countries and businesses.

Is it possible that the abortion holocaust and its rejection of life’s sacred dignity has also contributed to the recent practice of "ghost wives," as recently reported in Chinese news sources? This is the practice of providing a woman’s dead body to be buried with a deceased man so that the man will have company in the "next life." Distributors of the dead bodies of women found that men were willing to pay much more for a "new" dead body of a woman, rather than one previously preserved. Murder of women from out-of-the-way places ensued to fill the new demand for the fresh ghost wives.

When human life in the womb is not safe, no human life is safe. How can China regain the natural law dictates of conscience that tells every human heart that it is always wrong to directly kill an innocent human being, regardless of race, religion, health, age or location, including the womb (historically man’s most secure location, and now his most dangerous)? Through God, through prayer, through education, and through the witness of individual heroes, saving one person, one unborn child, at a time.

Six years ago, Mrs. Niu was evangelized by an aunt who had married into the family. She heard of Jesus and his Catholic Church and wanted to follow in his footsteps. She and her six-year-old daughter were baptized and brought into the Church. Her husband and in-laws could not understand this foolishness and only grudgingly allowed it. Mrs. Niu was often reprimanded for taking her little girl, Xiao Xiao, along with her to Church. But for Xiao Xiao, Church was a joy, and learning about Jesus was life-giving. Her mother talks of her as though she were the greatest saint to walk the face of the earth. She is really proud of the grace that has begun to work in her. Mrs. Niu’s commitment to Christ is unquestionable. She is filled with a peace that could only come from a strong faith.

At the beginning of the summer of 2004, Mrs. Niu discovered that she was pregnant. Feeling she could trust her husband, she told him of the new life developing within her. Rather than sharing in her joy though, he told her she needed to have an abortion. He proceeded to tell his parents, who were also of the opinion that she should abort. Her daughter, frightened by what all this meant, also encouraged her to have an abortion. Feeling the pressure all around her, she was uncertain as to what she should do.

One morning while she was struggling with this pressure, she happened across a copy of the movie, "The Passion." She bought it, took it home, and watched it that same afternoon. After this visual reminder of all that Jesus suffered for us that we might have life, she was determined to do all she could to preserve the life of her little one. This movie left her with a powerful resolve to fight for her child’s life. That very night, Population Control came to her home looking for her. Her mother-in-law had reported her pregnancy, and they were coming to verify and end it. They asked, "Is it true that you are pregnant?" She said, "Yes it is true, and I will go in the morning to have an abortion." That they came in the evening (and on that particular evening) rather than in the morning was ordained by Divine Providence. For if they had arrived in the morning, they would have escorted her to the clinic and made sure the abortion took place. But it was evening, and they felt satisfied with her answer. And having just finished watching "The Passion" she was filled with the conviction that she could not go through with an abortion.

After Population Control left, Mrs. Niu knew that she would have to leave home. She knew there was no way she could carry the child to term at home. She spoke to her daughter in private and told her that she was going to leave, but her daughter began to cry and plead with her mom. Not wanting to be separated from her mom, she begged her to have an abortion. Mrs. Niu tried to console her and finally told her daughter she would have an abortion to stop her from crying. But Mrs. Niu knew that this was not really an option for her. Although she heard the pleading of her daughter in her ears, she also heard the cry of her unborn child in her heart.

The next morning she took her daughter to school and on the way told her daughter she would go that morning for an abortion. She explained that she would be too weak to care for her for a little while, and so she should go to her grandparents’ house after school and remain there for a few days. Her daughter agreed, and again pleaded with her to have an abortion and not leave her.

After dropping her daughter off at school, Mrs. Niu left her bicycle near the school gate, got on a bus and went to the local church. There she spoke with a religious sister who said she could go and live with the sister’s parents until she gave birth to the baby. The sister wrote out the address of her parents on a piece of scrap paper and gave it to Mrs. Niu. Mrs. Niu thanked her, but knew she did not want to go there. The sister had two brothers who were living with her parents. She felt the house would be crowded and that she would be a burden. However, on the little piece of scrap paper was the address of a convent in another town. Mrs. Niu decided to see if they could offer her any help. She took a bus to the convent and when she arrived she spoke with the superior. When the superior heard her story, she told Mrs. Niu, in complete violation of the teachings of the Church, that she should be obedient to the law and carry out her husband’s wishes by aborting the baby. But Mrs. Niu was determined to follow God’s law and eventually was able to convince the sister that she was going to do everything in her power to save her baby. The sister, seeing there was no convincing Mrs. Niu otherwise, decided to help her. A priest happened to visit the convent to give the sisters some teachings. Mrs. Niu was introduced to him and he began to think of how to help her. He mentioned a nice Catholic village where she could go, but then ruled that out because the conditions there would have been a bit harsh. The priest then thought of a family where she could stay and decided that would be the best place for her to go. He sent her to this town in early August. The timing was perfect. Just before she left, her husband called the convent looking for her. He was trying to track her down.

In the town she was able to help care for the babies and cook for the staff in a nearby children’s home for several months. Although she missed her daughter terribly, she never complained about her situation or said anything bad about her family who had betrayed her. During the first week of November she started bleeding. She was taken to the hospital where the doctors discovered the placenta had partially detached from the uterine wall. They sent her back to the host family, but she was placed on complete bed rest. For the next month and a half she spent her days in bed praying the Rosary, reading the Bible, and knitting little booties. She remained at peace through the whole ordeal and constantly thanked God for taking care of everything. She just knew he would see everything through, as he had taken care of them thus far.

On December 24, in the wee hours of a snowy morning, her water broke. She was still six weeks away from her due date. She was rushed to the hospital and admitted at 3:00 a.m. Her husband, after months of having no idea as to her whereabouts, was contacted the next day to explain the situation to him. He was quite angry the first time he was called and hung the phone up before he even heard about his wife’s situation. Five minutes later, he was called again, and he had calmed down. He became very concerned for both mother and child when he learned that they were in danger.