Shiho Fukada for the New York Times
I remember having conversations 25 yrs ago regarding China's one child policy. I would tell people that China forced women to have abortions if they already had one child. I would tell them that at work women were required to keep charts on the wall of their menstrual cycles and prove their periods. It was the stuff of sci-fi nightmares and people generally thought I was just going off on my usual pro-life rants.
The same thing happened when I discussed partial birth abortions back then. No one even believed me on that one either. They believe me now, but now it seems we hardly horrified by anything anymore.
But now with the tragedy of the earthquake in China, the real cost of China's one child policy is there for all to see.
Yet we ignored this inhumane and grisly policy for all these years. While those on the left fought for the continued right to abort children in this country. China forced mothers who desperately wanted their children to abort.
A sad commentary on both our countries.
My heart is broken for the parents like the one's pictured above. Forced to only have one child, they now have none. China has promoted this evil for far too long and we have stood by and said nothing.
China's humanistic attempt to control it's population dismissed the reality of the greatest gift we are given on this earth...our children.
Ironically, it was just in March that China announced that it would continue it's one child policy for another decade.
For all the feminists out there who love to promote abortion rights, it might interest you to know that in China for all these years female infanticide was common given the cultural biased towards male children. There is also proof of less aggressive treatment of sick female infants.
Who would have guessed that the feminist's call to arms.....abortion, would be used to eliminate female babies in China. A sad irony to be sure.
The Chinese government has even acknowledged the disastrous social consequences of the sex imbalance of boys and girls as they grow to adults. The shortage of women has increased mental health problems and socially disruptive behavior among men and has left some men are unable to find women to marry and have a family. The scarcity of females has resulted in kidnapping and trafficking of women for marriage and increased numbers of sex workers, and a rise in STD's and human immunodeficiency virus infection.
What a wicked web we weave when don't see the blessings that children really are.
Here in the United States we can't even imagine the government telling us how many children to have, much less forcing us into abortions.
China is a lesson not only of the horror of big government, but a lesson on what the consequences are when we forget the gift that is our children.
|