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HK saves mother, baby from forced abortion in China

Chinese officials tried to force a mother who was visiting from Hong Kong to abort her six-month-old fetus under China's one-child policy, but Hong Kong's government intervened to save the unborn baby, a newspaper reported yesterday.

The Hong Konger, identified only by her surname Hong, and her two young children were staying with relatives at a town in Hunan Province when family planning officials came to their home and said she had to get rid of the child, Hong Kong's Apple Daily said.

The officials tried to drag Hong to a hospital but her relatives stopped them, and Hong then contacted Hong Kong authorities who asked Hunan police to intervene, the report said.

Local officials later apologized to Hong, who arrived in Hunan on June 28 and was planning to return to Hong Kong yesterday.

For three decades, China has limited most couples to one child to stem population growth in the country of 1.3 billion people. Critics say the policy has led to forced abortions.

Hong Kong maintains separate political and economic systems, and the one-child policy doesn't apply there.

Hong Kong's Immigration Department helped Hong as much as it could, department spokesman Sunny Ho told reporters. Ho declined to provide details.

A woman who answered the phone at the press office of Hunan's provincial police department referred questions to the department's immigration control division. Phone calls to that office didn't go through.
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