Governmental Coercion in Reproductive Decision Making: See It
Both Ways Earlier this year, the world reacted with outrage as
blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng made headlines during
his risky escape to the United States to flee persecution. Chen,
a human rights lawyer, had exposed and protested coerced
abortions, involuntary sterilizations and other abuses in China.
Soon thereafter, photos of Feng Jianmei—a rural Chinese woman
who was seven months pregnant and forced by local officials to
have an abortion—went viral in China and around the globe.
Notably, Chen had never publicly advocated against abortion per
se. Instead, he denounced forced abortions as a violation of
human rights. Yet, U.S. antiabortion activists and policymakers
predictably latched onto Chen’s and Feng Jianmei’s struggles as
vindications of their cause, as they consistently have done when
cases of coercive sterilizations or abortions have been
uncovered in China. Reproductive rights advocates, meanwhile,
responded to the Chen and Feng