An expert on China believes a recent report that the country is ending its forced abortion and sterilization policy isn't true.
The initial report came from one organization that confirmed a memo to that effect, but it was just in one town, not countrywide. Reggie Littlejohn of Women's Rights Without Frontiers tells OneNewsNow China has stated before it is not conducting forced abortions and sterilizations, but maintains it has done them for over three decades and will continue to do so.
"I just think that this is propaganda that the Chinese Communist Party is using to deflect the tremendous turmoil that happened over the forced abortion of Feng Jianmei," she says. "She's the one who was forcibly aborted in June and her picture came out with her forcibly aborted seven-month baby [laying] next to her. So I think that this is sort of the aftermath of that, and that the Chinese Communist Party is trying to save face and that's all it is."
Littlejohn stresses that the document in question only referred to late-term abortions and said nothing about ending forced early and second-trimester abortions. She adds the previous false report has already had an effect.
"What it does is it makes people think that this is no longer a problem," she indicates. "They won't be praying about it. They won't be signing petitions and putting their political will behind stopping it."
Littlejohn encourages people to continue working with the campaign to stop China's forced abortions and sterilizations and continue to sign a petition to that effect on her website.