Officials punished for NW China forced abortion

XI'AN - The city government of Ankang has announced punishments for officials involved in a forced abortion in northwest China's Shaanxi province.

Feng Jianmei, 23, was forced to terminate her pregnancy over seven months in a hospital in Zhenping county on June 2. That violated her rights late in her pregnancy, according to the investigation report released by the Ankang municipal government on Tuesday.

Several government officials in Zhenping, which is administrated by Ankang, and its Zengjia township violated the laws of central and local government on population and family planning, said the report.

The government said its has decided to subject Yu Yanmei, deputy county magistrate of Zhenping in charging of family planning, with administrative demerits according to national and provincial policies and regulation.

Jiang Nenghai, head of the family planning bureau of Zhenping, has been removed from his post. Some other officials of the township, county government and the county hospital that aborted Feng's pregnancy, were also punished.

According to the investigation, while persuading Feng to receive the abortion, some staff of the township government used crude means to violate her intentions.

There was also no legal basis for the township government's demand that Feng and her family pay a deposit of 40,000 yuan (about 6,228 U.S. dollars) for a certificate allowing her to have her second child.

Feng, a non-agricultural resident born on December 25, 1989, gave birth to a girl in 2007 while she was 17, said the report.

Under family planning laws, Feng was not legally entitled to have a second child.

The investigation showed that Feng lied in claiming to be an agricultural resident and entered her birth date as January 21, 1985, on the marriage registration.

In March 2012, local family planning authorities found Feng had entered her third month of pregnancy and asked her to migrate her 'hukou' -- household registration certificate -- to her husband's account and obtain the necessary certificate for a second child.

Feng and her family offered no response to the township government's request and did not pay the deposit.

Details of the case, including several photos showing the remains of the fetus lying next to the mother on her hospital bed, were posted on online forums and have shocked and angered many people nationwide.

Ankang municipal government had already ordered the Zhenping county government to offer Feng's family compensation.