Police officer faces firing over baby No. 2
Wife ponders abortion to save her husband’s job
BEIJING — A public outcry has been raised over the plight of a woman who is considering an illegal abortion at eight months because the child would violate China’s restrictive birth policy and would cost her husband his job as a police officer.
Members of the public have been calling local officials in the couple’s Yunnan province community to ask about the case, and an online travel service reportedly has offered the husband a position if he loses his government job.
The case has rekindled debate over whether employment in the public sector should be used to enforce the policy that limits urban couples to one child in cases where both husband and wife have at least one sibling.
The 41-year-old woman, who spoke on condition she be identified only by her surname, Chen, said in a telephone interview Monday the couple felt under pressure to abort their second child to keep her husband’s job with local police. “I’m fearful,” she said. “If my husband believes I must abort the child, there’s nothing I can do.”
She added she was uneasy about the public attention her case was drawing.
The couple was hoping for a policy change that would allow them to have a second child, but she unexpectedly became pregnant this year in violation of the current rule.
Wen Xueping, a family planning official in Yunnan’s Chuxiong prefecture, said the couple will not be forced to abort the baby, but have been warned of the consequences. Couples who violate the child policy face hefty fines and — if they have government jobs — face being sacked.
Wen said people have been calling his office to ask about the couple, whose case has garnered much attention on social media.
“No way will we force them to have an abortion,” he said. “But there also is the suspicion that the couple wants to avoid the punishment for breaking the rules by stirring up public interest.”
In 2012, there was an uproar after a 23-year-old woman in Shaanxi was forced to have a late-term abortion. Local family planning officials were punished and Beijing warned against lateterm abortion.
The state-owned news website The Paper said James Liang, a senior executive of the web travel service CTrip, has offered the man in Yunnan a job if he loses his position on the police force.
Many critics are calling for an end to the one-child policy, saying China cannot afford to be an aging society. Taking away a family’s livelihood is too draconian a punishment — especially for one that will now have two children to raise, they add.
But some observers have said the couple should have obeyed the one-child policy and should not expect any exemption.
Although China now allows more couples to have a second child, this not the case for urban parents who are not only children, like Chen and her husband.
“No way will we force them to have an abortion. But there also is the suspicion that the couple wants to avoid the punishment for breaking ther ules by stirring up public interest.
WEN XUEPING
FAMILY PLANNING OFFICIAL