The tragedy of family planning with the surname of the womb : the mouse under the sterilization needle

China's family planning policy has undergone dramatic changes since it was established as a basic national policy in the 1970s, from the original one-child policy of "prefer ten graves rather than a single person" to the encouragement of three children by 2021. During this period, the wombs of Chinese women were controlled by the party and the government. If they didn't want you to give birth, they couldn't give birth; if they wanted you to give birth, they had to give birth. The government's violent family planning policy has caused many tragedies, which have been reported by domestic and foreign media. However, little attention has been paid to the fact that some birth control methods implemented in China are far from mature, and are experimented on some women, resulting in lifelong damage to their physical health. Our reporter Zheng Chongsheng produced two episodes of the exclusive investigative report "The Family Planning Tragedy of the Party Surnamed Uterus". The first episode takes you to understand the sad song of rural women in Qianjiang, Hubei, who became guinea pigs under the sterilization needle in the 1990s.

Two injections, ruin your life. This is a portrait of Peng Dongxiang from Qianjiang, Hubei for more than 30 years.

As the mother of two sons, Peng Dongxiang did not enjoy the joy of being a mother for a long time. In 1991, the youngest son was only three years old. After she paid the fine for giving birth to a second child, the family planning station in Qianjiang City, Hubei Province was eyeing her. One birth, two births, and three births!

Peng Dongxiang told reporters, "They have been coming to work! We listen to the government and go to the family planning station to get needles. They are like doing experiments, using our bodies to do experiments. We just use needles directly into the fallopian tubes, but the medicine As soon as I got in, I couldn't stand it, I got chills, I fainted, and later said that I didn't have a ligation, so I asked me to get another needle, and I got a second needle, and my body was broken."

The rhetoric of "should not be a liar, pick up the house and bring the cow" was a real tactic of promoting family planning policies in various places in that era. . No matter how strong a mother is, she is afraid that the next generation will be hurt, so Peng Dongxiang loses her health.

The sterilization injection (the scientific name is tubal injection sterilization) caused her to suffer from long-term low back pain and stomach pain, and experienced the pain of sticky organs. In the first few years, she couldn't even get out of bed, and now the painkillers often don't leave her body. At the age of 60, she sighed that she was able to do farm work in good health, because after the two injections, let alone work, she two. Her son had to be brought up by her parents, and she was full of guilt for her child and her husband.

"People are sick, they can't work, and they still have to take medicine. No family can afford it," she said. "If they (the children's husbands) didn't treat me well, I would be gone!"

Sterilization needles seal the fallopian tubes like glue     

Being sick and alive, Peng Dongxiang has been able to petition and defend her rights for more than ten years. She is very lucky. In Qianjiang, a county-level city with a population of more than 900,000, there are at least 300 people who have had a similar experience with Peng Dongxiang. She told reporters that many people with more serious conditions than her were injected with injections, "some of them were killed. They (the government) didn't care about anything at the time, they even pierced those who were pregnant, and they also pierced when menstruation came. It was just like a task. Get one."

When doctors perform surgery, in theory, they try to avoid the risk of postoperative adhesions. However, in China, the experiment of sterilization needles that stick to the fallopian tube cavity and cause blockage through intrauterine sterilization may be unique in China.

Documents show that in the 1980s, during the period of China's national "Sixth Five-Year Plan", "prospective studies" on sterilization needles were carried out in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shandong, Hebei and Shaanxi. According to the "Chinese Journal of Epidemiology" in 1992, the research group led by Liu Yunrong, an expert at the Institute of Science and Technology of the National Family Planning Commission (abbreviated as: Family Planning Commission), began to use phenolic mucilage ( Phenol mucilage) and 8% phenol-atabrine paste (phenol-atabrine paste) drug injection sterilization trial, the report emphasized, "This is a simple, safe and effective female sterilization."

Government divided over use of sterilization needles

Liang Zhongtang, a former expert from the Population Expert Committee of the China Family Planning Commission, told this station that there have been differences between different government departments on sterilization and family planning.

"That was a type of adhesive surgery, probably in the mid-1980s. This method was implemented in some places, including Hubei, Sichuan and Shanxi. In fact, the National Family Planning Commission at that time supported this method to a certain extent. But at that time there were two departments, one was the Family Planning Commission and the other was the Ministry of Health. Objectively speaking, this kind of operation was not recognized by the Ministry of Health, so it was given up after a while.”

"Family and state affairs are the world's affairs, family planning is a major event." In such an era when the slogan was popular, the officials of the family planning department were in power for a while, the health department did not nod, and the sterilization needles are still being shot in some places, "at all costs'" must complete the task. In Qianjiang, in addition to Peng Dongxiang, there are also Li Wanfeng and Wan Xiaoyun, who all became this "price" in the 1990s.

Government 'whatever it takes' to control population, people become 'the price'

A speck of ashes of the times, falling on a person's head, is a mountain. For the sterilization needle victims who have a similar experience with Peng Dongxiang, the stress of life after health trauma is not a hurdle that every family can overcome. In Qianjiang, some people have not even completed the appraisal and cannot receive compensation.

One interviewee in Qianjiang told this station that during the years of petitioning, she was fed up with the official violence, exhausted physically and mentally, and gave up seeking justice from the government; another victim was afraid of affecting the lives of the next generation, "We My family has to sell iron to make money so that I can continue to take medicine and maintain my life. I am interviewed, will my son lose his job? Will they not pay my compensation?" The 60-year-old man Qianjiang women cried to this station, but did not want to be interviewed by name.

Why did Qianjiang, Hubei in 1991 implement the family planning policy in an experimental way, such as sterilization shots? One of the possible reasons is to quickly complete the tasks assigned by the superiors in Beijing.

In 1991, after China's family planning-related laws and regulations were gradually improved, the then President Jiang Zemin made the "Decision on Strengthening Family Planning Work and Strictly Controlling Population Growth". If the family planning indicators proposed by the superiors are not completed, qualifications such as promotion, merit evaluation, and advanced evaluation will be "one-vote veto".

In China's official statistics, after the establishment of the National Family Planning Commission in 1981, the number of birth control surgeries reached a peak in 1983, with more than 58 million cases in that year, including more than 14 million abortions and more than 16 million tubal ligations. . 1991 had the second highest number of birth control operations.

According to the 2021 China Health and Family Planning Yearbook, among the more than 38 million birth control operations performed in 1991, there were more than 14 million induced abortions, and the number of women with tubal ligation exceeded 6.75 million.

The data reflects the pulse of the policy of the times, but some key data are missing in different versions of China's official statistics.

China's official family planning policy-related data "China Family Planning Yearbook" began in 1986; "China Health Statistical Yearbook" was first published in 2003; None of the three yearbooks related to family planning policies have statistics on the number of sequelae caused by sterilization.

Family Planning A Mirror of Chinese Government Governance

Liang Zhongtang said that the Chinese government has a process of understanding the problems arising from the family planning policy. He pointed out that after the re-establishment of the National Family Planning Commission in 1981, Qian Xinzhong, the director of the National Family Planning Commission, resolutely promoted "one-child Shanghuan and second-child sterilization". In 1983, the number of birth control operations in China set a record. Although the numbers on the books are good, Qian Xinzhong was dismissed after only one year and seven months in office. "The central government dismissed him because he went too far, which is obviously a denial of his actions."

In addition, Liang Zhongtang said frankly that the evolution of the Chinese government's governance capacity is also reflected in the issues derived from the family planning policy.

"There is also a problem with the level of social development. In the 1960s and 1970s, there were very few medical institutions in rural areas and below the county level, and they did not meet the medical conditions for the implementation of family planning. The general environment at that time included the level of social development and the management level of cadres. At that time, it can be said that everyone was still a peasant, and the gap between urban and rural areas was still very large, while in China at that time, there were not many people who could reach the urban standard." Liang Zhongtang said.

In December 2007, Zhang Weiqing, then director of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, admitted that among the 150,000 family planning technical service personnel in China, 50,000 do not have medical qualifications; a considerable number of service institutions have irregular infrastructure and outdated equipment.

Qianjiang City, Hubei: There is no problem of sterilization needle victims

Then, why did Qianjiang, Hubei choose to implement the family planning policy with sterilization needles in the 1990s? How many people were hit? How many people were injured?

A staff member of Qianjiang Municipal Government responded to the reporter's inquiries by saying, "Whether the matter you mentioned exists requires corresponding evidence and basis. If you want to investigate, you need to find relevant departments to investigate. And I think, The situation you mentioned will not exist, it is a rumor."

The staff member did not tell the reporter his name, and asked this station to check with the Qianjiang Municipal Health Commission. The reporters of this station called the Hubei Provincial Health and Health Commission and the Qianjiang Health and Health Commission many times, but no one answered.

In fact, in 2011, the Chinese government promulgated the "Administrative Measures for the Identification of Complications from Family Planning Surgery (Trial)", and it is identified that the victims of family planning complications should be paid by the population and family planning department at the place where the household registration is located, and the county level or above should bear the cost of treatment. Local population and family planning administrative departments are responsible for the identification and management of complications.

In 2018, the National Family Planning Commission was abolished and merged into the National Health and Health Commission. Problems arising from the family planning policy are theoretically handled by local health and health commissions. However, this appraisal method allows the family planning commission of the parties to deal with its own administrative issues, rather than a third-party agency handling the appraisal work. How to avoid the doubts of "players and referees" is related to whether the appraisal method can be implemented fairly.

But the victim Peng Dongxiang still thought of the government and said, "Our country is still very strong and rich, but too many people have this problem, the country can't afford it, and we can't do anything about it. The country gives a little money. The national policy is still Well, it's the people who execute it below. President Xi has to manage so many things, but he can't manage the following things, and they won't follow President Xi's path and policies."

Is it all the local government's fault if there is a problem with the implementation of the country's overall policy? The New York-based human rights organization China Women's Rights has long been concerned about women's rights and interests under China's family planning policy. Its founder, Zhang Jing, told reporters that the party and the state are the initiators.

"The policies of the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government have been controlling the wombs of Chinese women. If the party tells you to give birth, you will give birth. If the party tells you to not give birth, you cannot give birth. If the party tells you to stop, you have to stop. This is very tragic and terrible. policy." Zhang Jing said.

But she also lamented that under China's family planning policy, women in rural and remote mountainous areas are actually the most affected. Whether it is in Sheung Wan or taking medicine, they are the most economically disadvantaged group, and they also lack medical knowledge. What to do to check, so there is no life. But "the real cause of the famine starved to death of tens of millions of people, has most of the people explored it? The party is bullying the people, and you are forgetful anyway."

Like what happened to Peng Dongxiang's generation of Chinese mothers, the pain of two generations of the family is still there. Under the impetus of the family planning policy, they are victims of sterilization injection experiments, but they have never been paid attention to by the Chinese media.

However, the Chinese media and academic circles have called for relief measures for "Sheung Wan" and "Shangjia" victims of birth control complications. So are they all taken care of by the state? The next episode of the report will take you to know those Chinese women who are "shanghuan" and "shangjia".