Chinese abortion death due to birth quota enforcement, family claims | World news | The Guardian
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/21/chinese-abortion-death-birth-quota-claims
When Ma Jihong became pregnant for a third time, she looked forward to expanding her family. So many neighbours had broken China’s strict birth quotas she thought she could too. But six months later she died in panic on an operating table after officials in Lijin, Shandong province, forced her into a late-term abortion, relatives have said.
Beijing has sought to move away from coercive enforcement of its one-child policy. Forced abortions and sterilisations are illegal, but experts say abuses continue as local officials strive to meet birth targets.
“Although the policies are less extreme than in previous decades, it is a mistake to think these issues have disappeared,” said Nicholas Bequelin, the senior Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Sanctions, fines and forced abortions continue to be imposed on rural women.”