Lancaster
Published: Nov 18, 2008
10:20 EST
By TOM MURSE, Staff Writer

U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts is calling on China to halt its efforts to perform a forced abortion on a Muslim Uighur woman who is four months pregnant with her third child.

The case of Arzigul Tursun, who was reportedly under guard in a hospital in China's northwestern Xinjiang region, has drawn international attention, partly because terminating the pregnancy so late in the mother's term could threaten her health.

Pitts, a Republican who represents Lancaster County, said that carrying out the procedure would illustrate China's indifference to human rights before the world.

"I call on the Chinese Government to immediately intervene in order to stop any forced abortion from taking place," Pitts said in a prepared statement on Monday.

"Though we know Chinese authorities regularly use forced abortions to enforce its coercive population control program, carrying out this brutal procedure with the world watching Arzigul Tursun's case would display an utter disregard for any notion of human rights by the Chinese authorities," said Pitts.

"The Chinese Government should immediately release her from custody and allow her to carry her child to term," said Pitts.

China maintains a one-child-per-family rule on majority Han Chinese, with more flexible rules for ethnic minorities, to contain its massive population of 1.3 billion citizens. Those who violate the rule must pay large fines, although reports of zealous officials ordering forced abortions in rural and semi-rural areas are fairly common.