A Uyghur mother has reportedly died in prison in China after allegedly being jailed for fleeing a forced abortion.
There are 12 million Uyghurs living in the Xinjiang region of China. Most Uyghurs are Muslim and constitute China’s largest minority ethnic group, which has allegedly been subject to human rights abuses, including forced abortions, as well as genocide in recent years.
Zeynebhan Memtimin, a Uyghur woman, managed to escape a forced abortion in 2014, and later gave birth to a baby. But in 2017, Zeynebhan was arrested with her husband, who helped her evade the abortion.
In 2014, ethnic minorities in Xinjiang were not permitted to have more than two children. Zeynebhan was a mother of four.
Both parents were charged with “social order” and “religious extremism” offences. They were sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Now it has been reported that Zeynebhan died in prison. A police authority, blaming the victim, is alleged to have said that, since Zeynebhan “had multiple births”, it was “natural that she died from illness”.
No one knows what happened to Zeynebhan’s four children.
This year, there were calls to boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in China because of the treatment of Uyghurs, as reported by SPUC.
Pro-life MP Fiona Bruce has called attention to the forced abortions that Uyghur women have had to endure. “We hear that it is happening at scale, to hundreds of thousands of women… It is appalling”, she said.
SPUC comment
A SPUC spokesperson said: “The stories coming out of China about forced abortions are appalling.
“All Zeynebhan wanted was to save the life of her unborn child. It now appears that she has paid with her life.
“Abortion is gender-based violence, which ought to cause outrage around the world – a world that has, for the most part, remained silent. Thankfully, pro-life MPs such as Fiona Bruce are speaking out against this ongoing crime against mothers and their babies.
“Abortion coercion in all forms must never be accepted.”
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