Forced abortions in China have commonly been practiced for breaching the one-child policy. Hundreds of women are forced into late-term abortions every year. Two years ago, Xiao Ai Ying was forced to abort her eight month-old fetus; her story has been documented by al Jazeera news and shared on youtube. This year, a similar case triggered outrage in China as a picture of the 23-year-old Feng Jianmei lying on a bed, with the corpse of her baby by her side went viral online.

Similar to Ying, Jianmei was forcibly injected with a lethal chemical to induce an abortion. Deng Jiyuan, Jianmei’s 29-year-old husband, told CNN, “I’m angry and want justice; they forced her to abort our seven-month-old child, do they deserve to be called Communist Party officials who served the people?”

According to Malcom Moore of the Telegraph, the couple, as farmers, was allowed to have a second child under Chinese law, given the permission of their Local Family Planning bureau. Three months along with her pregnancy, Jianmei was asked by officials to fill out an application form, pay a fee, and change her Chinese registration permit to reflect that she lived in a rural area. The couple failed to fill out the form and could not pay 40,000 yuan ($6,300 USD).

“It should not be a cent less than that (40,000 yuan),” read a text message, allegedly sent to Deng Yan, Jiyuan’s sister by Yuan Fang, a family planning official. When the couple informed the officials they weren’t able to raise enough money, Jianmei was taken from her home on May 30 and given a lethal injection on June 2.

Al Jazeera news reported that Jianmei told Ms. Chai Ling, the founder of All Girls Allowed, an advocacy group focused on protecting women’s rights in China, that she never agreed to the forced abortion. According to Ling, Jianmei was held down by five strong men with a  pillow case over her head and was forced to press her finger with ink and paste it on the form. Jianmei gave birth to her dead child 36 hours after she was injected.

The abortion took place at the Zhenping County Hospital. Authorities in the province have admitted that the abortion was illegal. The pictures that angered Chinese web users was taken by A San, Jianmei’s cousin, and shared online on June 11, a week after the forced abortion.

China has been implementing family planning policies since the late 1970s in order to control the population growth rate, which is currently up to 1.3 billion people, the world’s largest.

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After 31 years of torture and terror, China’s One-Child Policy has finally been brought up as an important issue in a U.S. presidential race. The reference to China’s coercive birth control policy surfaced in a new 30 second “super-pac” ad entitled “Happy”. The ad points out that Newt Gingrich co-sponsored a bill that gave $60 million a year to a U.N. program supporting China’s One-Child Policy.

With so much recent research highlighting the policy’s threat to America’s security and economy, and with abortion taking its place as a top issue in the 2012 debate, many have asked why this ad is the first mention of an issue of such critical importance to millions of Americans.

“It’s becoming clear that America wants to know where its next leader stands on China, its relationship to the U.S, and its brutality towards women,” says Chai Ling, former commander-in-chief of students at the 1989 Tiananmen Square Student Movement and founder of All Girls Allowed.

She continues, “Both pro-choice and pro-life groups have interest in this issue and it should be highlighted in upcoming debates. Mothers in China are given no choice and 400 million lives have been “prevented”, according to Chinese government statistics. Unfortunately, because of son-preference, most of these lives were girls, leading to a gender imbalance that deeply affects the U.S.”

The Economist recently reported that in China, today’s unmarried young men know there are five women for every six men (largely as a result of the policy and cultural preference for sons), and tend to save money to attract a wife. Unmarried men are un-spending men, leading to artificial inflation of China’s currency. This has helped generate the current trade imbalance and daily impacts the U.S. economy.

Historically, countries with an excess of men have attacked other countries, says this Newsweek article, which first brought China’s problem to national attention.  Just weeks ago, Chinese President Hu Jintao’s call  to “prepare for war” has propelled it to national concern.

“For years, it should have mattered in national presidential debates that millions of mothers were forced to abort, and that whole villages were being sterilized in China,” says Ling.  She points to two horrific and recent stories: the killing of Ma Jihong, second-time mother (at the hands of Chinese officials) and the kidnapping of infants (by Chinese officials) for sale to U.S. adoption agencies.

“But with the danger facing America in this hour, we cannot remain ignorant.  The One-Child Policy must be brought up as an issue in the U.S. Presidential election, ” says Chai Ling.  “Everybody wants to know what is going to be done with China, and where each candidate stands on the human rights atrocity that many have deemed ‘the greatest crime ever committed against humanity.”

The economy, foreign policy and abortion are in the top 5 issues for candidates.  Questions about the One-Child Policy in China and national security are absolutely vital for each of these three categories.

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