Mothers and Unborn Babies Subjected to Disastrous Tragedy throughout China: A Comprehensive Report (Part 1)

Communist regime agents at the Wanjia Forced Labour Camp in Heilongjiang Province attempted to compel a more than six months pregnant woman to renounce her belief in Falun Gong. The camp police made her stand on a stool, and then tied her hands with a thick rope tightly to a horizontal girder and kicked the stool away. She hung in midair. The girder was 3 metres high off the floor [more than 9 ft. high]. One end of the rope went through a pulley on the girder, and the police officer held the other end. If he pulled the rope, the practitioner would be hung in the air and if he released the rope, the practitioner would fall rapidly to the ground, landing on her buttocks. The expectant mother was thus tortured this way continuously until she had a spontaneous abortion and was in indescribable pain. The police were even more cruel by ordering her husband to stand by and watch his wife being tortured.

On May 25th, 2002, police agents from the Mengzhou City 610 Office¹ and from the police department jumped over the wall into the courtyard of Ms. Geng Juying's house in Luozhuang Village, Chengbo Town, Mengzhou, Henan Province. They arrested the pregnant Ms. Geng without any warrant. To get their bonus for sending her to a forced labour camp and for the camp to accept her, they forced Ms. Geng to have an abortion. When she was in unbearable pain, several policemen looked at her and laughed cruelly. As they watched her abortion they said lewdly, "Aren't you pretty? We just want to watch you have an abortion!" Thus Ms. Geng lost the baby under the eyes of these policemen. Ms. Geng was afterwards sent to the Shibalihe Forced Labour Camp in Zhengzhou and has been incarcerated there until now. (For further information, see a joint urgent appeal sent by the United Nations Special Rapporteur Theo van Boven on 15th July 2004, and the detailed report at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/5/19/48275.html).

Such unbelievable, shocking and extremely cruel tragedies happen in today's China, committed against Falun Gong practitioners who are persecuted for their belief in "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance."

Falun Gong is a high-level cultivation practice of the Buddha School. In practising Falun Gong, practitioners perform five sets of exercises to improve their health, and in addition, they pay attention to the cultivation of their morals and integrity as set forth in the principles of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance," to be good persons in all circumstances. Falun Gong brings tremendous benefit to individuals, society and the country, without having any negative impact. Falun Gong has spread to almost 80 countries and received over 1,330 awards of recognition from governments and other organisations. Since July 1999, kind and innocent Falun Gong practitioners have been suffering inhuman persecution from the rulers of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The international society recognises that the violent infringement against women and children is humanity's biggest shame. Even the Laws of the PRC (People's Republic of China) on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women state clearly, "Women shall be under special protection during menstrual period, pregnancy, obstetrical period and nursing period." According to article 60 of the Criminal Law, article 17 of Prison Law, pregnant women should not be subject to forced labour. Nonetheless, according to cases of persecution exposed by the Minghui/Clearwisdom website, investigations by the World Organisation to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, evidence collected by the Global Mission to Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners, and investigative reports by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women, Special Rapporteur on torture and Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, revealed something different: Female Falun Gong practitioners are not only subject to stays in forced labour camps and illegal detention during their pregnancy, they are also tortured and forced to do excessive, heavy labour that leads to abortion. Even worse, in order to send practitioners to a labour camp or to continue their illegal detention, lawless officials have forced female practitioners to undergo abortions. This happens throughout China today!

The tragedies listed below that came to light after breaking through the information blockade are only a tiny fraction of numerous incidents during the past six years of persecution.

I. Forced Abortion

Agents from the "610 Office" in Hanzhong, Shaanxi Province Cruelly Kill a Near-term Foetus

Mrs. Zhang Hanyun, 33, a resident of Hanzhong, Shaanxi Province, had suffered from amenorrhoea and couldn't get pregnant, even though five years ago the village administration committee had given her permission to have a baby. After practising Falun Gong for six months her menses became normal and she conceived. Her whole family was immensely grateful to Falun Gong and its founder Teacher Li.

On July 20th, 1999, Jiang Zemin's regime launched the nationwide persecution of Falun Gong. The Hanzhong 610 Office staff also persecuted and extorted money from practitioners under the guise of organising a brainwashing class. Every practitioner who was forced to attend the brainwashing class was extorted out of 3,000 yuan², "to cover expenses." In March 2003, though Mrs. Zhang was pregnant and expecting her baby soon, she was told to attend the brainwashing class. To avoid persecution, she hid with a relative's family, but the Communist regime retaliated further. With instructions from the Hanzhong "610 Office" staff, the Beiguan administrative office closed down her father and brother's construction sites in an attempt to force them to hand over Mrs. Zhang. They also handcuffed Mrs. Zhang's husband to the bridge over the Jialing River in Lueyang County to humiliate him. They eventually illegally arrested Mrs. Zhang and sent her to that brainwashing class. When the staff realised Mrs. Zhang would soon give birth, they took her to an employee hospital 30 km. away where the baby was surgically dismembered. The scene was too horrible to witness.

Nine-month-pregnant Woman Injected with Drugs to Induce Abortion - Husband Becomes Blind and Paralysed - Four-year-old Son Abducted

Mrs. Wang Guijin, a practitioner, lives in Huazhuang Village, Lutai Town, Huaiyang County, Zhoukou City, Henan Province. Her husband, Mr. Song Zhenling, an outstanding teacher, previously suffered from a serious case of Hepatitis B, which persisted despite many treatments. After beginning Falun Dafa practice in 1996, Mr. Song became very healthy.

Since the onset of the persecution on July 20th, 1999, the couple has several times been detained and tortured for being steadfast in their cultivation and for telling people the truth of Falun Gong and about the persecution. The formerly happy Song family has suffered greatly.

On July 19th, 2004, agents from the Lutai Police Station in Huaiyang County arrested Mrs. Wang at her mother's house. She was nine months pregnant. The police took her to the Huaiyang County family planning centre. Eight men held her down and forced her to have an abortion. Afterwards, Mrs. Wang was sentenced to five years in prison and has been incarcerated to this day. Her father was sentenced to one year in prison for "harbouring a criminal," and a neighbour was fined 2,000 yuan for sheltering her for one night.

As a result of abuse and torture under the persecution in the Huaiyang Detention Centre, Mrs. Wang's husband Mr. Song Zhenling almost completely lost his vision, his feet were paralysed and he is emaciated. Nevertheless, he was sentenced to ten years in prison.

Law enforcement agents from the "610 Office" and from the police station's security section also abducted Mrs. Wang's four-year-old son. Mrs. Wang has not heard anything about her son since then. (See the detailed report at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2005/1/9/56304.html)

Ms. Liu Zhiping in Yunnan Province was Forced to Abort her Five-month Pregnancy

Ms. Liu Zhiping was an employee at the Transportation Hotel for the Chuxiong County Transportation Corporation in Yunnan Province. After she started practising Falun Gong, she followed the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Her health improved and she upgraded her morality. Communist regime agents sentenced Ms. Liu to forced labour in 2000 for upholding her belief and appealing for justice for Falun Gong, and sent her to the Women's Forced Labour Camp in Yunnan Province. In August 2000, Ms. Liu was forced to abort her five-month-old unborn child. The following are details of her terrible experience:

"Although I was three months pregnant, I was forced to stand under the direct sun for long hours during the day. I was assigned to the farm team to do heavy labour, such as picking beans, digging dirt or carrying excrement in buckets on a shoulder pole. At night I was forced to stand for long hours without sleep, or run for long hours around the courtyard until early morning. One day after running until 2:00 a.m. I started to do the Falun Gong exercises. A prison guard incited two criminal inmates to beat me brutally and put me in a solitary cell. I was handcuffed to the bunk bed rails. My body was in an unnatural position and stretched out like a cross for a long time. I started a hunger strike to protest.

My sister was then detained at the same labour camp for practising Falun Gong. She heard some inmates talking about me and was so sad that she cried. She asked the labour camp to stop the persecution of a pregnant woman. A few days later, the labour camp authorities sent me to a hospital for a camp-ordered, chemical abortion. Because of my righteous thoughts, the medicine didn't take effect. In August 2000, I was then five months pregnant. According to the law, I qualified to be released on bail for medical treatment. But since I refused to renounce my belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, the guard shouted, "Without her being "reformed³," there is no way for her to get out of here." I was again sent to a hospital and injected with medications to induce an abortion. I lost the baby." (See the detailed report at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/10/6/53186.html)

Mrs. Tang Jinai in Guangdong Province was Forced to Undergo an Abortion and Sent to a Forced Labour Camp

Mrs. Tang Jinai is a resident of Zhenlong Town, Zengcheng City, Guangdong Province. In December 2000 she went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. She was arrested and sent to Zengcheng Detention Centre while two months pregnant with her first baby. Pregnant women are protected by the Chinese Constitution and are not to be sent to forced labour camps. That prompted police officer Luo Weijun and other Communist regime agents from the Zhenlong Town Police Station to take her against her will to the Family Planning Office in Zengcheng City. About six men put her onto an operating table, held her down and forced her to undergo an abortion! Against Mrs. Tang's rights, without her approval, and without notifying Mrs. Tang's husband and family, these evil people deprived a two-month-old foetus of its right to life. This constitutes murder!

After the surgery, these people took Mrs. Tang back to the Zhenlong Police Station. The personnel there feared that she might die, so they sent her home. Mrs. Tang lay in bed, unconscious. The perpetrators still sent people to monitor her daily. During the 2001 Chinese New Year's Eve, these people deceived Mrs. Tang's family and said they would have Mrs. Tang checked in at a hospital. Eventually they sent her to a Drug Rehabilitation Centre. Two months later, since Mrs. Tang refused to renounce her belief in Falun Dafa, the lawless officials sent her to the Chatou Forced Labour Camp in Guangdong Province for an eighteen-month term. (See the detailed report at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2005/4/23/59988.html)

Four-month-pregnant Mrs. Luo Biqiong was Beaten and Underwent Forced Abortion by Police

Mrs. Luo Biqiong was a resident of Yingshan County, Nanchong City in Sichuan Province. On January 18th, 2001 she and her family went to her in-law's home to celebrate the Chinese New Year. At eleven o'clock, while she was sleeping, a dozen police officers from the Lushui Police Station came to arrest her. After detaining her for fifteen days, the police sent Mrs. Luo to a brainwashing class held in a conference room of the Langchi Town Street Administration Office.

Mrs. Luo was four months pregnant at the time, but five thugs took turns beating her. They used their heavy boots to kick her thighs, stomach and her back. They then forced her to kneel down on the ground and used the heels of their shoes to kick her legs. They also hit her face, hands, and head. Mrs. Luo's entire body was cut and bruised, her mouth was filled with blood, her head and hands were swollen, and both her legs turned purple. She couldn't control her bladder and then had a uterine hemorrhage. The police would neither release her nor allow her a change of clothes.

A week later, the torture made Mrs. Luo mentally traumatised and she wrote a guarantee statement⁴. The police still wanted to extort 1,000 yuan from Mrs. Luo's husband, but since Mrs. Luo's family was very poor and could not get the money, the police eventually gave up before releasing her. After returning home, Mrs. Luo soon became clearheaded and realised that she shouldn't have written the guarantee statement. She went to the government office and wrote a solemn statement saying that she would continue to practise Falun Gong. After the officials sent her statement to their leaders, several people came over and grabbed Mrs. Luo, and forcibly performed an abortion on her unborn child. A four-month-old human life was killed!

After 20 days, the police went to Mrs. Luo's home intending to arrest her, but she had already left 17 days after the incident to avoid recapture. Mrs. Luo is still homeless today. (See the detailed report at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/10/4/53110.html)

Many female Falun Gong practitioners have similar miserable experiences like Wang Guijin, Tang Jinai, Liu Zhiping and Luo Biqiong.

Other Incidents of Forced Abortion

Mrs. Luo Fang in Leshan, Sichuan Province and her husband Mr. Shen Lizhi are both university graduates and were preparing to go abroad. On February 1st, 2002, officials from Yingmenkou Police Station arrested the couple on a No. 75 Bus in Chengdu City. They claimed the couple carried Falun Gong materials with them and detained them at the Chengdu Detention Centre. Mr. Shen Lizhi was tortured to death one month later. Mrs. Luo Fang was eight-months pregnant at the time of her arrest, and the perpetrators from the 610 Office forced her to have an abortion. They released Mrs. Luo on May 28th, 2002, in very weak health. On December 5th, 2002 she was arrested again. She was tortured and sentenced to twelve years in prison. They sent Mr. Luo to the Chuanxi Women's Prison in Chengdu City where she has been held ever since. She has recently become nearly paralysed due to the torture. (See the detailed report at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/1/13/44044.html)

Ms. Liu Sujun, 37, a resident of Luannan County, Hebei Province, was arrested and beaten numerous times simply because she told people, who had been misled by the government propaganda, the facts about Dafa and the persecution. She went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong and was arrested and detained for five months. Ms. Liu was two months pregnant at that time. During the detention, the police connected both her hands and feet together with heavy shackles, preventing her from sitting up straight. She suffered this kind of inhuman torture until her seventh month of pregnancy. Then she was forced to terminate her pregnancy and was sent home. Only two weeks later, Ms. Liu was arrested again and sent to a brainwashing centre. She went on a hunger strike and even refused to drink water to protest the arrest. Her mother could not bear to see her daughter suffering, so she went to appeal to the county government. After five days of being on the hunger strike, Ms. Liu was released. In 2001, Ms. Liu was arrested once again and is still imprisoned in the county detention centre as of today. (See the detailed report at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/6/8/48992.html)

Shenzhen City Falun Gong practitioner Wang Shaona and her husband went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong and were arrested on February 15th, 2000, and detained at the Shekou District Custody Centre. At that time Mrs. Wang was six months pregnant. In order to detain her "lawfully," the police made her undergo a forced abortion. According to reliable sources, Mrs. Wang, pregnant again, and her husband were arrested again on June 30th, 2000, and Mrs. Wang was once more forced to terminate her pregnancy. She was then incarcerated in the Nanshan Detention Centre in Shenzhen City. (See the detailed report at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/6/5/48926.html)

Ms. Wang Hongmei was a Ph.D. candidate in the History Department at Lanzhou University when she was arrested on June 7th, 2001. Carrying out the arrest were officers from the university's police station. These agents sent her to the Taoshuping Forced Labour Camp in Lanzhou City. She was pregnant at the time of arrest. The police forced her to have an abortion.

Ms. Lu Qiuxi of Baise, Guangxi Province, was detained in the Baise Detention Centre for 45 days because she practised Falun Gong at a Memorial Monument on July 1st, 2000. Her three-month-old unborn baby was forcibly aborted while she was in detention. Ms. Lu was illegally sentenced to two years of forced labour in April 2001. According to investigations on the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in Guangxi Province, it is confirmed that between July 20th, 1999 and May 20th, 2004, at least three female practitioners had to undergo forced abortions before being sent to a forced labour camp.

(See the detailed report at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/5/2/35119.html)

Ms. Yue Qiuyu from Xinjiang Province was illegally detained in the Wulapo Women's Labour Camp in 2000, where the authorities forcibly terminated her seven-month pregnancy. Ms. Yue suffered immense mental shock as a result. Additionally, the guards physically tortured her to an extreme extent. After serving her sentence, Ms. Yue returned home, but the perpetrators still harassed and persecuted her. She left home to avoid further persecution. No one knows her current whereabouts. (See the detailed report at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2005/6/22/62116.html)

Ms. Yang Ping from Wuhan City, Hubei Province appealed for Falun Gong and was arrested in March 2000. She was pregnant at the time of arrest but was forced to terminate her pregnancy. Ms. Yan was initially detained in the Zhonghua Road Police Station in Wuhan and was later transferred to the Caidian Police Station.

Agents from the 610 Office and local police in Leshan City, Sichuan Province illegally arrested a pregnant Falun Gong practitioner in the Shawan District and forcibly aborted her six-month-old foetus without notifying her family. The practitioner was later sentenced to seven years in prison.

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Lu Yunzhen was arrested in January 2000 in Beijing and was taken back to her residential place, Fengcheng City. She was pregnant at that time. The Fengcheng Police Department chief ordered a hospital to forcibly abort her pregnancy.

Note

1. "The 610 office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

2. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

3. "Reform or Transform" Implementation of brainwashing and torture in order to force a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong. (Variations: "reform", "transform", "reformed", "reforming", "transformed", "transforming", and "transformation")

4. "Guarantee Statement": A statement to declare that one is remorseful for practising Falun Gong and guarantees not to practise Falun Gong again, not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and never again associate with any Falun Dafa practitioners.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/1/10/118360.html