Happy Birthday!

This week has been filled with fun activities celebrating my birthday.  As I reflect on my life, I can't help but think how grateful I am to have been born in the United States.  During my lifetime I have never experienced discrimination because of my gender, felt limited in my school or career choice, or felt confined to a specific role.  However, women around the world are not as fortunate. 

There are countless countries that treat women like nothing more than objects, but my recent readings have focused on the struggles of women in China.  I feel grieved when I think about how they are treated and how the west ignores their plight.  As I think about it I continue to wonder, 

why aren't we actively trying to stop these atrocities?

Here is the summary (from Women's Rights without Frontiers and radio broadcast by Reggie Littlejohn):

• China's One Child Policy is enforced through forced abortion and involuntary sterilization.
• Because of the traditional preference for boys, girls are disproportionately subject to abortion, abandonment and infanticide.
• Because of this gendercide, there are an estimated 37 million more males than females living in China today.
• This severe gender imbalance is a powerful, driving force behind human trafficking and sexual slavery from nations surrounding China.
• According to the WHO, China has the highest female suicide rate of any country in the world.  Approximately 500 Chinese women kill themselves each day.  Could this extraordinary suicide rate be related to the trauma of enduring a forced abortion or forced sterilization?
• A government-issued birth permit is needed to get pregnant.
• Upon getting married, women are forced to have an IUD "installed".
• Men are often imprisoned, beat, and fined to reveal the location of their daughters/wives if the woman is suspected of having an illegal pregnancy.  This has led to husbands and fathers taking the women by force to get an abortion to avoid facing punishment themselves.
• Women are often shown the dead bodies of their babies after the abortion AND forced to pay.
• If the baby is born alive because of a failed abortion, it is often suffocated, left to die on the table, or put in a trashcan.

Click here to read stories of women who survived forced abortions.

As if the details of forced abortions weren't enough to find in one day: our tax dollars are used to help international organizations implement China's One Child Policy!

The tangled web of deceit:

From the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF): The China Family Planning Association (CFPA) plays a very important role in China's family planning programme.  It supports the present family planning policy of the [Chinese] government, which is appropriate for the present national situation, and duly reflects the needs and opinions of the people to the government so as to protect their legal rights. Its programmes have been well received by the people, and financially supported by the [Chinese] government.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) is member of IPPF (as explained here)
 
The China Family Planning Association (CFPA) has close relations and program cooperation with IPPF and UNFPA (as explained on the CFPA's website).

 The United Nation Family Planning Association (UNFPA) announces in 2009 that US funding has been restored.  Why was funding suspended in 2002?  The UNFPA was suspected of using US money in China. Reading the news article left many questions to be answered.  

I am still praying about how I should speak up against these atrocities.  In the meantime, I'll keep praying, speaking up, and donating our money towards organizations that free women from the bondage of oppressive governments.

Who has God put on your heart to be advocate for justice?

For our family its not just women suffering in China or around the world.  Its children who have a parent in prison or who have been abandoned because of drugs, alcohol or abuse.  Young moms who face an unplanned and/or unwanted pregnancy.  Married couples who desire to live for better or worse.