在中國實施「一孩政策」卅三周年之際，美國一名婦女權益活躍人士，提醒那些以為有關政策已結束的人，繼續關注它對中國婦女依然構成的威脅。
雷吉．利特爾約翰（Reggie Littlejohn）九月廿二日接受美國《天新社》訪問時表示：「一孩政策確實仍在推行。任何有關中國正在放棄這項政策的報道都是假的。」
利特爾約翰是「無國界婦女權益」創辦人兼主席。這個國際聯盟致力於披露在中國發生的強迫墮胎、性別滅絕，以及性奴役等情況。
九月廿五日是計劃生育實施卅三周年。該政策於一九七九年開始推行，以控制人口增長。有關措施限制大部分家庭祇准有一名孩子，並為推行生育控制政策的「人口和計劃生育委員會」官員設立配額獎賞制度。
利特爾約翰說：「一孩政策引致婦女及女孩受到的暴力對待，超過世界上任何其他官方政策，超過世界歷史上任何其他官方政策。」她又說，中國共產黨誇稱透過這政策「預防了四億個生命」。
「懷孕已九個月的婦女被迫墮胎，有時這些強迫墮胎的做法相當殘暴，使婦女和足月的胎兒一起死亡。」
除了為中國婦女爭取權益，利特爾約翰也曾領導國際力量，促請中國釋放維權人士陳光誠。陳氏於二零一三年五月抵達美國。
利特爾約翰是中國計生政策的國際專家，曾經在美國國會、歐洲國會、英國國會及愛爾蘭國會作證，並在白宮、美國國務院及梵蒂岡講述有關中國婦女權益的議題。最近，她在羅馬舉行的母親健康護理會議上致辭，並得以與教宗方濟各會面。
她駁斥西方媒體認為一孩政策正在消失的看法，並反過來指出：「當中共扭弄這政策作出微調時，在某些原因下，事情就被報道為『中國正放棄一孩政策』，這並不真確。」
她表示，一孩政策所牽涉到的高壓手段是被利用來鞏固共產黨的權力。
她說：「這政策的核心、這政策的中心，並非在於政府容許每名婦女有多少個孩子，而是他們用來實施限制的高壓手段。」
利特爾約翰續說，一對夫婦如果獲准生育第二名孩子，仍然需要獲得生育許可證。如果他們無法獲得，母親在妊娠期屆滿時仍有可能被強迫墮胎。
她指出，除了強迫墮胎，一孩政策也引發其他人權問題，例如人口販賣及性別滅絕。「中國政府實施這種強制低生育限制，再加上重男輕女，結果出現性別選擇的墮胎或性別滅絕。」
她說：「目前，中國男性比女性多三千七百萬，使人口販賣及性奴役不僅發生在中國境內，也發生在周邊國家。」
利特爾約翰表示，這種為實施一孩政策而採用的高壓手段，含有雙重目的，保住共產黨在中國的政權。中國聲稱，這政策推出時，生育率約五點九，而現在「較近於一點七，遠低於二點一」。
「中國的人口問題並不在於太多人，而是太少年輕人。因此我相信，它已轉化為社會控制的政策，是政府展示其權力的方法。」
她又提及中國的告密者制度，這些人特別被指派觀察婦女的狀況，並舉報腹部「看起來比正常還大的」任何女性，而政府因向超生家庭徵收「過高」罰款而獲利。這些是她相信有關政策被利用來保持政權的理由。
利特爾約翰表示，當告密者發現有婦女超生，計生辦人員就會「在夜半時分，把婦女從牀上拖出，將她們綑綁在桌上，然後強行替她們墮胎，當中有些妊娠期已達到九個月」。
「這是對婦女的暴力行為，我認為是官方政府的強姦行為，也是對整體國民的一種恐嚇方式。」
利特爾約翰強調有必要引起人們關注一孩政策，並指出其團體的網站提供的資源可以作為起步。她表示，影片《停止強迫墮胎：中國打壓婦女的戰爭》提供簡短而清楚的介紹，易於在社交媒體分享，協助傳播信息。
她也提及其組織展開的「救救女孩」運動。該運動向祇因胎兒是女的而正考慮墮胎的婦女，提供為期一年的每月津貼。
利特爾約翰指出，獲得津貼後，「九成半受助婦女選擇保留她們的女兒」。
她說：「每當我對結束中國強迫墮胎這種滔天罪行感到有點沮喪時，就會看看這個文件夾裡面獲我們拯救的這些女嬰的漂亮面孔。」
「我們正在結束性別滅絕，我們正在結束強迫墮胎，一次一個胎兒。」
【完】來源：《Catholic News Agency》，天亞社編譯。
One-child policy still a massive threat to women, expert warns
.- In wake of the 33rd anniversary of China's one-child policy, a women's rights activist has raised concern about those who believe the policy has ended, warning of the dangers it still poses.
“The one child policy is definitely still happening. Any report that states that China is abandoning the one-child policy is false,” Reggie Littlejohn said in a Sept. 22 interview with CNA.
Littlejohn is the founder and president of “Women’s Rights Without Frontiers,” an international coalition aimed at exposing forced abortion, gendercide, and sexual slavery in China.
Wednesday marks the anniversary of the country's one-child policy, which was instituted during the Mao era in China in 1979 as a means of population control. The measure restricts most Chinese families to one child each, and uses a quota reward system for the Family Planning Officials who carry out the birth control policies.
“The one-child policy causes more violence towards women and girls than any other official policy on earth, than any other official policy in the history of the world,” Littlejohn said, adding that the Chinese communist party has boasted about having “prevented four hundred million lives” through the policy.
“Women are forced to abort babies up to the ninth month of pregnancy, and sometimes these forced abortions are so violent that the women themselves die along with their full-term babies.”
In addition to her advocacy for China's women, Littlejohn also led the international effort to free Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng, who arrived in the United States in May, 2013.
Known as an international expert on the country's one-child policy, she has testified at the U.S. Congress as well as the European, British and Irish Parliaments, and has briefed the White House, the U.S. Department of State, and the Vatican on the issues of women's rights in China. Most recently, she addressed a maternal health care conference in Rome, where she was able to meet Pope Francis.
Littlejohn rejected media perceptions in the West that the one-child policy is waning, countering that “when the Chinese communist party tweaks the policy, makes a minor adjustment to it, for some reason that fact gets reported as 'China is abandoning the one-child policy,' which is not true.”
According to her, coercion involved in the one-child policy is being used to keep the communist party in power.
“The core of the policy, the centerpiece of the policy, is not how many children the government allows a woman to have, it’s the coercion with which they enforce the limit,” she said.
Littlejohn added that even if a couple is granted a second child, they would still need to have a birth permit – if they do not get one, the mother is still subject to a forced abortion until the end of her term.
Outside of forced abortion, the one-child policy has opened the door to other human rights issues, such as human trafficking and gendercide, Littlejohn said.
“The fact that the Chinese government imposes this coercive low birth limit, combine that with the preference for boys and what you end up with is sex-selective abortion, or gendercide.”
“Right now there are thirty-seven million more men living in China than women,” she said, “and that’s driving human trafficking and sexual slavery, not only within China but the surrounding countries.”
Littlejohn said that the coercion used to enforce the one-child policy serves the double purpose to also keep the communist party in place in China, stating that when the policy was initiated, the birth rate was about 5.9, whereas now it “more like 1.7, which is well below 2.1.”
“China’s population problem is not that they have too many people, it’s that they have too few young people. So I believe that it has transformed into a policy of social control that’s a way for the Chinese government to demonstrate its power.”
She also listed China’s system of informants, who are specifically assigned to watch women and report anyone whose abdomens “look bigger than they should,” and the money that the government makes in profit from the “exorbitant” fines they charge to families with more than one child, among the reasons she believes that the policy is being used to keep the current party in place.
When the informants catch a woman, Littlejohn said, China’s Family Planning Police come “in the middle of the night, grabbing women out of their beds, strapping them down to tables and forcing them to abort babies they want up to the ninth month of pregnancy.”
“That is a form of violence against women, its official government rape in my opinion, and it’s a way of terrorizing the entire population.”
Littlejohn emphasized the need to raise awareness about the one-child policy, pointing to the resources on her group's website as a place to start. The video, “Stop Forced Abortion: China’s War Against Women,” gives a short, but good introduction that can easily be shared on social media to help spread information, she said.
She also suggested her organization's “Save a Girl” campaign, which offers a monthly stipend for a year to mothers who are considering aborting their babies, simply because they are girls, as a way to give assistance.
After being offered the stipend, in “ninety-five percent of the cases, women choose to keep their daughters,” Littlejohn noted.
“Whenever I feel sort of frustrated about the enormity of ending forced-abortion in China,” she said, “I’ve got this binder of all these beautiful faces of these baby girls that we’re saving.”
“We’re ending gendercide, we’re ending forced abortion one baby at a time.”
Tags: Human rights, One-Child Policy, Violence against women
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