ET: China state media says city officials have apologized to Feng Jiamei and suspended three officials, the BBC reported.
Xinhua News Agency said on Friday that two top local family planning officials and the head of the township government would be relieved of their duties.
There was a public uproar after graphic photos of the mother and her dead baby were posted online.
The government of Ankang city, where Feng lives in northwest China’s Shaanxi province, said a deputy mayor visited Feng and her husband in the hospital, apologised to them and said officials would be suspended amid an investigation.
“Today, we are here on behalf of the municipal government to see you and express our sincere apology to you. we hope to get your understanding,” Deputy Mayor Du Shouping said, according to a statement on the city government’s website.
Xinhua said Feng was not legally entitled to a second child under China’s one child limit, but added that late term abortions are prohibited.
One child policy
Activists have criticised authorities for allegedly forcing Feng Jianmei to abort her pregnancy because she failed to pay a hefty fine for exceeding China’s “one child” population control policy.
Al Jazeera’s Steve Chao reports from Hong Kong
Chai Ling, the founder of All Girls Allowed, an advocacy group focused on protecting women’s rights in China, had been in contact with the mother of the aborted child.
“[Feng] told us she never consented to the forced abortion,” Chai told Al Jazeera from Boston on Thursday.
“She was dragged by five strong men, they held her down, put a pillow case over her head and put her finger with ink and pressed on the form.
“Then they injected the needles with poison into her tummy, into the baby’s head.
And the baby, who was jumping aroundkicking around before in her tummy, all of a sudden stopped moving.
”
Chai said the mother was in a “very bad mental state”.
“We need to stop this kind of terrible campaign against women and children in China and immediately,” she said. ”We were told this is not just a single case, it’s the beginning of a campaign by local authorities in an effort to try and improve their one child policy record.
Pip Digiovanna is a business journalist based in Milan, Italy. Pip has a passion for financial markets and breaking news stories and loves writing about business news, stock market, and economic opinions that matters most to its audience. Pip spends a lot of time discovering and researching latest financial markets and industry news stories in order to make sure the latest and greatest stories are brought to you first on BigBoardNews.com.
