An MP has described the inhumane treatment that Uyghur women living in China are subjected to which includes forced abortion and sterilisation.

Speaking during a debate on International Development and Gender-based Violence, Conservative MP, Fiona Bruce, described the horror that Uyghur women are forced to endure.

The Uyghur people are a Turkish ethnic minority. It is estimated that at least 12 million Uyghurs live in China.

Fiona Bruce said: “It is appalling to hear how women from the Uyghur community have been violated as part of the Chinese Government’s brutal campaign to curb its Muslim population.

“They are violated through forced birth control, pregnancy checks, the mandatory insertion of painful intrauterine devices, forced sterilisation and abortions. We hear that that is happening at scale, to hundreds of thousands of women…

“Simply having too many children is a major reason why people are sent to detention camps. Many receive sentences of years, and in some cases decades, in prison just for having several children.”

Reports indicate that the Uyghur birth rate has fallen by 60% in some areas since the start of the ethnic cleansing regime by China’s communist government.

Violation of women and children

Earlier this year, a doctor who worked for the Chinese Government revealed the terror she witnessed under the regime.

The woman described how she witnessed and took part in at least 500 to 600 operations on Uyghur women. The operations included forced contraception, forced abortion, forced sterilisation and forced removal of wombs.

Speaking to ITV News, the doctor said: “We’d go village to village, gather all the women and herd them onto tractor (sic). Young women were fitted with contraceptive devices. Older women would have to have an abortion then sterilisation… Their clear intention was ethnic cleansing.”

Abortion is gender-based violence

Grace Browne, SPUC Communications Officer said: “Abortion is a form of gender - based violence which reveals a gross disrespect for women and human life around the globe.

“We cannot ignore the violence against women and children. To our shame Britain has undertaken coercive measures against women.

“Only last year a British Judge ruled that doctors could forcibly restrain and perform an abortion on a woman with learning difficulties. In the same year, another British judge attempted to subject a woman who was 22 weeks pregnant to an abortion. In both cases, the women were then forcibly fitted with contraceptive devices against their will.

“A forced abortion is one of the worst things that can be done to a woman. Cases such as these should cause shock and outrage around the world.”