Faithless
03-07-2005, 02:08 AM
Interesting twist on pro-lifers interest into world affairs, as some North Korean women have been reporting that they have been forced to abort by the North Korean government.
To be fair, this is an international issue which has drawn the attention of human rights organizations, but it is also one that has drawn the interest of many a pro-life groups.
Babies lose rights, but U.S. doesn’t cry foul (http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050306/OPINION04/103060006/-1/opinion)
John Hall * Published: Sunday, Mar. 6, 2005
In North Korea last year, “pregnant female prisoners reportedly underwent forced abortions, and in other cases babies reportedly were killed upon birth in prison.”
That unadorned sentence stands out in the State Department’s annual country-by-country report on human-rights problems around the world.
You would think, particularly in an administration that has become associated with the “right-to-life” movement, that this alleged practice would be amplified. It was not.
In its section on China, the department noted that thousands of North Koreans fled across the border in an attempt to escape the wretched conditions in their homeland. China deported most of them.
Many of those sent back “faced persecution and some may have been executed” on their return, the report noted.
Some North Koreans, including girls who are forced into prostitution once they reach China, have been fleeing to escape starvation and malnutrition in a famine that is largely hidden from world view.
Because of dictator Kim Jong Il’s nuclear-weapons taunting, North Korea is being let off with half a wrist slap with a wet won-ton for these outrages.
China never seems to get much pressure either to treat the North Korean refugees more humanely or to stop Kim from brandishing his nukes, even though the Chinese are preparing to host the 2008 Olympics and are dependent on the advanced nations for trade.
Instead, all the American attention is focused - insofar as freedom, democracy and human rights are concerned - on the Middle East.
...
.
A report by lifenews.com (http://www.lifenews.com/nat1213.html)
North Korea Engages in Forced Abortions, Infanticides Bush Report Says
by Steven Ertelt * LifeNews.com Editor * March 1, 2005
Pyongyang, North Korea (LifeNews.com) -- Like the Chinese government, officials in North Korea practice a regime of forced abortion and infanticides, according to a human rights report released Monday by the Bush administration.
Written by the State Department, the report says, "The [government of North Korea's] human rights record remained extremely poor, and it continued to commit numerous serious abuses."
...
.
A report by lifesite.net (http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/feb/05022107.html)
Monday February 21, 2005
Infanticide, Forced Abortions Common Practice in North Korean Camps
SEOUL, February 21, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A defector, testifying at human rights hearings Tuesday, said that infanticide and forced abortion are common practices in North Korean detention camps.
“I heard the cries of both mother and child through the curtain (at a hospital). And through the partially open curtain, I witnessed the nurse covering the infant's face with a wet towel on a table, suffocating it,” said the 28-year-old woman, identified as Park Sun-ja, according to a koreaherald.co.kr report.
...
To be fair, this is an international issue which has drawn the attention of human rights organizations, but it is also one that has drawn the interest of many a pro-life groups.
Babies lose rights, but U.S. doesn’t cry foul (http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050306/OPINION04/103060006/-1/opinion)
John Hall * Published: Sunday, Mar. 6, 2005
In North Korea last year, “pregnant female prisoners reportedly underwent forced abortions, and in other cases babies reportedly were killed upon birth in prison.”
That unadorned sentence stands out in the State Department’s annual country-by-country report on human-rights problems around the world.
You would think, particularly in an administration that has become associated with the “right-to-life” movement, that this alleged practice would be amplified. It was not.
In its section on China, the department noted that thousands of North Koreans fled across the border in an attempt to escape the wretched conditions in their homeland. China deported most of them.
Many of those sent back “faced persecution and some may have been executed” on their return, the report noted.
Some North Koreans, including girls who are forced into prostitution once they reach China, have been fleeing to escape starvation and malnutrition in a famine that is largely hidden from world view.
Because of dictator Kim Jong Il’s nuclear-weapons taunting, North Korea is being let off with half a wrist slap with a wet won-ton for these outrages.
China never seems to get much pressure either to treat the North Korean refugees more humanely or to stop Kim from brandishing his nukes, even though the Chinese are preparing to host the 2008 Olympics and are dependent on the advanced nations for trade.
Instead, all the American attention is focused - insofar as freedom, democracy and human rights are concerned - on the Middle East.
...
.
A report by lifenews.com (http://www.lifenews.com/nat1213.html)
North Korea Engages in Forced Abortions, Infanticides Bush Report Says
by Steven Ertelt * LifeNews.com Editor * March 1, 2005
Pyongyang, North Korea (LifeNews.com) -- Like the Chinese government, officials in North Korea practice a regime of forced abortion and infanticides, according to a human rights report released Monday by the Bush administration.
Written by the State Department, the report says, "The [government of North Korea's] human rights record remained extremely poor, and it continued to commit numerous serious abuses."
...
.
A report by lifesite.net (http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/feb/05022107.html)
Monday February 21, 2005
Infanticide, Forced Abortions Common Practice in North Korean Camps
SEOUL, February 21, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A defector, testifying at human rights hearings Tuesday, said that infanticide and forced abortion are common practices in North Korean detention camps.
“I heard the cries of both mother and child through the curtain (at a hospital). And through the partially open curtain, I witnessed the nurse covering the infant's face with a wet towel on a table, suffocating it,” said the 28-year-old woman, identified as Park Sun-ja, according to a koreaherald.co.kr report.
...