Michelle Obama Needs to Defend Chinese Women
First Lady Should Condemn China’s “War on Women,” But Will She?
Note: The following is reprinted from Population Research Institute.
When Michelle Obama arrives in Beijing today with her two daughters, Sasha and Malia, she will be the envy of Chinese women. She has what almost none of them have. Not only does she have two children—most urban Chinese are limited to one—but she has two daughters.
Steven Mosher, President of the Population Research, says, “Women and girls have been the primary victims of China’s thirty-five year long ‘war on women.’ Women who are pregnant with illegal children are targeted for abortion. Unborn girls are identified by ultrasounds and selectively eliminated. Millions die each year.”
But Michelle Obama apparently intends to ignore all this. We are told that she will focus her message on education; she plans to remain silent on human rights issues.
In the face of her silence, women’s rights will continue to be violated. During her seven day visit in China, population control officials will oversee abortions on some 250,000 women, many under threat of heavy fines or physical duress. Chinese women also continue to be coercively sterilized.
Mrs. Obama will meet with China’s first lady, Peng Liyuan, who only has one child. Michelle Obama should ask her to help her fellow countrywomen.
Mrs. Obama should educate the Chinese press by telling them that it is time for China’s party-state to stop dictating who reproduces and who remains barren.
Mosher notes, “China’s ‘population control’ program is simply state-sanctioned forced abortion and forced sterilization. Michelle Obama should not remain silent in the face of this century’s greatest human rights violation.”
In 1995, then-First Lady Hillary Clinton condemned forced abortion in China. Michelle Obama needs to do the same.
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Reprinted from Population Research Institute, http://pop.org. Press Contact: Anne Morse, (540) 660-2733, anne@pop.org.
Learn More:
Time to End Forced Abortion in China
The Most Violent Policy Against Women and Girls in the World
Man Killed by Family Planning Officials in China, Rights Group Reports
U.S. Reports on Forced Abortion in China, North Korea
