C1) Are Tibetan women being forced to have abortions?
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This article is from the Tibet FAQ, by Peter Kauffner Peter.Kauffner@bearsden.org and Nima Dorje tibet@acs.ucalgary.ca.
C1) Are Tibetan women being forced to have abortions?
The following account is from _Sky Burial_ (1993) by Blake Kerr. Kerr is
an American physician who visited Tibet in 1987.
I spoke with a Tibetan nurse named Chimi who had worked for three
years at Lhasa's People's Hospital. She explained to me China's
family-planning policy for urban Tibetans....
"If a woman has a second child," she continued, "the child will have
rights. But this is discouraged. Sterilization is done automatically
on many women delivering their second child at Chinese hospitals.
"Having a third child is strongly discouraged. An illegal child has
no ration card for the monthly allotment of Tibetan dietary staples
at government stores: seven kilos of _tsampa_, one-half kilo yak
butter, and cooking oil. Without a ration card a child cannot go to
school, do organized work, travel, or own property....
My stomach felt queasy as Chimi described how "unauthorized"
pregnancies were routinely terminated with lethal injections. Chimi
said that she herself had given hundreds of these injections....[Kerr93]
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