Chinese women will remain at risk of intrusive forms of contraception and coerced or forced abortions, despite the authorities announcing a change to the country’s decades-long one-child policy, Amnesty International said today.
State media reported today that all urban married couples will now be allowed to have two children instead of one.
“The move to change China’s one-child policy is not enough. Couples that have two children could still be subjected to coercive and intrusive forms of contraception, and even forced abortions – which amount to torture,” said Colm O’Gorman , Executive Director at Amnesty International Ireland.
“The state has no business regulating how many children people have. If China is serious about respecting human rights, the government should immediately end such invasive and punitive controls over people’s decisions to plan families and have children.”
Amnesty International has continued to receive reports of coerced abortions–which are technically illegal– and sterilizations in China. In 2010, 1,377 relatives of couples targeted for sterilization in Puning City, southern China, were detained in an apparent attempt to pressure the couples to ‘consent’ to sterilization.