A 27-year-old woman from China, known as Xiao Ju, has reportedly had seventeen abortions in just six years. That’s an average of three abortions per year since the age of 21.
Dr Zhao Qin from Shiyan Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital, who treated Xiao Ju during her seventeenth abortion, pleaded with the woman to reconsider the procedure and keep her child because it would likely be her last chance at being a mother.
The internal damage to Xiao Ju’s uterus was so progressed that the membrane may not be thick enough for a fertilised egg to properly implant. Doctors suspect Xiao Ju will never fall pregnant again and if she does, it’s likely she will miscarry before the second trimester.
According to The Sun, Dr Qin said the amount and frequency of abortion procedures have left Xiao Ju with severe scarring. “I found her uterus lining to be critically thin, like a piece of paper, due to the repeated abortions she had.”
Despite all seventeen abortions being performed during her six-year relationship with her current boyfriend, Xiao Ju claims it’s impossible for her to raise a child as a single mother, and she has no intention of marrying.
In China, women can be penalised for having children out of wedlock. Usual child benefits are difficult to receive, including health, housing and education, unless they pay a hefty fine.
While the one-child-policy has been raised to two, the government enforces a zero-child policy for unmarried women. In a number of provinces, women who fall pregnant out of wedlock are forced to end the unborn child’s life.
Sadly, Xiao Ju has aborted a child as often as many of us have had to pay our electricity bill, and she’s only 27-years old. Too often women are fooled into believing that the unborn child has no inherent value. They’re told a fetus is less than human and therefore disposable.
In Xiao Ju’s case, the doctors are wrong. She hasn’t missed out on her chance of being a mother. She’s been a mother to 17 precious little babies. What she’s sadly missed out on is the joy of motherhood – the rewarding, sanctifying, sacrificial, and selfless love that comes with raising a child.
