San Francisco, CA — A federal appeals court has sided with a Chinese woman who was compelled to have two abortions and later fled to the U.S. to seek political asylum. She says she would be imprisoned and forcibly sterilized if she returned.
In a recent 3-0 decision, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reversed a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals denying asylum to Xuan Wang and her husband.
In the opinion for the unanimous court, Justice Betty Fletcher said Wang “has shown a genuine and well-founded fear of future persecution, should she return to China.”
Fletcher added that a 1996 law “provides that forced abortions are per se persecution and trigger asylum eligibility.”
Pro-life groups were elated by the decision and said it was based on common sense.
“One can hope that the Chinese government will one day terminate their anti-woman policies rather than their children,” Serrin Foster, the President of Feminists for Life, told LifeNews.com.
“They are destroying the country's most priceless possession. If any other country invaded and exterminated the next generation they would call out their troops. But, when the Chinese government sends officers to drag a women away for an abortion and invades her to take her daughter or son, they think that is okay,” Foster explained.
China has been criticized for over two decades for its population control program that allows women to be forcibly aborted or sterilized for having too many children.
In 1996, Congress passed a bill allowing a maximum of 1,000 people to declare political asylum annually if they can show their home countries forced abortions or sterilizations on them as a result of population control programs. However, the State Department has refused some claims because applicants failed to prove their claims.
The appeals court justices found Wang provided sufficient evidence for her asylum application because she has been forced to have two abortions following the birth of her first child. Chinese authorities also had issued an order for her to be forcibly sterilized upon her return to the country.
Population control officials also contacted Wang's workplace and demanded that her pay be decreased or that she be fired.
Xuan Wang's attorney, Judith L. Wood of Los Angeles, told the Los Angeles Times “I'm very happy. Justice was done.”
In December 2002, the same court denied asylum to another Chinese couple.
An immigration judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals had said Xu Ming Li and Xin Kui Yu were not eligible for asylum. In that case, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed.
Li and Yu, an unmarried couple, fled China in 1998 after officials gave Li a forced pregnancy exam. At the exam, she was held down while a doctor examined her “private parts,” Li, then 19, said according to court records.
As she yelled, kicked and demanded they release her, she was told she would receive similar tests in the future, and if found pregnant, would be subject to an abortion, Li said. Her boyfriend, Yu, then 21, could also be sterilized, she said the officials told her.
“I was so scared. I was yelling. I was making noises,” Li said, according to court documents, adding that officials threatened her, “For the rest of your life you cannot have child.”
Related web sites:
9th Circuit's Opinion
(This article courtesy of Steven Ertelt and LifeNews.com. For more information or to subscribe go to LifeNews.com or email news@LifeNews.com.)
