Pregnant woman dies attempting to flee forced abortion

A pregnant Chinese woman fell to her death at a hospital while trying to flee an attempt by local officials to force her to abort twins, a human rights monitoring centre said.

Li Shimei was seized at her home and taken to the hospital in the eastern city of Hefei because she already had one child when she became pregnant, a violation of China’s “one child” birth limits, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said, citing unidentified sources.

Li, who was seven months pregnant, fell from the Shuguang Hospital’s second floor while trying to leave because she thought the procedure was too dangerous, the Information Centre said.

An employee who answered the phone at the hospital confirmed that a pregnant woman died in a fall there on June 22 but said she had no other details. The employee would not give her name.

Most urban Chinese couples are limited to one child in an effort to slow the growth of China’s population of 1.3 billion people and ease the strain on food supplies and natural resources.

The government says forced abortions are forbidden. But local officials who are under pressure to meet quotas are often accused of forcing women to end pregnancies, sometimes late in the term.

The Information Centre said Li’s death was under investigation by Hefei police. Employees who answered phone calls to the Hefei police headquarters said they didn’t know about the case.