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Longtime Opponent of China's One-Child Policy Sentenced to Labor Camp, Tortured in Custody, Human Rights Group Says
(Kaisernetwork) A Chinese woman who has campaigned against China's one-child-per-family policy for 15 years has been sentenced to time in a prison labor camp and allegedly has been tortured while in custody because of her protests, according to a Human Rights in China statement released on Wednesday, Reuters/Yahoo! News reports. Mao Hengfeng in 1988 was fired from her job at a Shanghai soap factory for becoming pregnant with a second child (Reuters/Yahoo! News, 10/6). Mao carried her pregnancy to term despite "severe pressure" from the government to have an abortion, the AFP/Australian reports. Mao -- who had become pregnant again -- then sued the soap factory for firing her, and the presiding judge told her he would rule in her favor if she aborted her pregnancy, according to HRIC, the AFP/Australian reports. Mao aborted her seven-month-gestation pregnancy against her wishes, but the court ruled against her, saying that because she violated China's family planning policy, the factory had a right to dismiss her (AFP/Australian, 10/6). Mao in April was sentenced to 18 months in a prison labor camp for refusing to give up her protests of the government's family planning policy. Mao also has undergone "severe beatings" and has been "bound hand and foot and suspended in mid-air," HRIC said in the statement. Shanghai city government and public security officials declined to comment on the report, Reuters/Yahoo! News reports (Reuters/Yahoo! News, 10/6).
(c) 2004 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation
Source: Kaisernetwork
Publish Date: October 7, 2004
Online at: http://ifrl.org/IFRLDailyNews/041007/3
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