An Abortion in Three Minutes in China

2006-03-05

Bartłomiej Magierowski

While walking along the sidewalk, I received a medical newspaper from some nurse, containing information about medicine, drugs, and advertisements for hospitals and clinics. On the last page there was a shocking advertisement (at least for me). The text of the advertisement was roughly: "Pain-free abortion in 3 minutes. Now on promotion, 200 yuan cheaper!" Below it were detailed descriptions explaining that the procedure takes place in individual rooms, with one doctor, and that the hospital guarantees privacy, cleanliness, a comfortable atmosphere, and safety. At the very bottom, for convenience, there was a complete list of buses that could take patients to the hospital.

For me, abortion is certainly not something good. As I suppose, this is connected with our religion and traditions, but also with a sex education lesson during which I was shown details of such a procedure on television. Perhaps this is why, now being in China, such advertisements always irritate me. To me, human life is priceless. And I know that in China abortions are performed even in the sixth month of pregnancy. I knew such a girl, a woman who almost became a mother. You are probably thinking about forced abortions? Unfortunately, no. I know cases of voluntary, conscious abortions.

She was twenty-six, he was around thirty. A couple, a young man and a young woman. They were not fully aware of what contraception was; they used a condom "at the last moment", if one can describe it that way. After several such intimate meetings, she naturally became pregnant. She had her own company, worked as a trade intermediary, rented an apartment, and could certainly afford to support a child. The man basically had nothing against having a child, he loved her and was ready to marry her; he also had a job. After several days, she decided to terminate the pregnancy. Without any problems, she went to the first hospital she found. As she later explained, the procedure lasted about five minutes. After the abortion, a nurse asked her to sit in the waiting room for a while, rest, and said that when she felt better she could return home. She felt weak throughout the entire day, but she was happy because her problem had just disappeared, although she had to pay around 1,000 yuan.

There are millions of such stories. In massage parlors, besides actual massages, dozens and sometimes hundreds of girls offer sexual services. Some of them are certainly pregnant, but without a doubt none of them wants to become a mother. The problem can be solved in three minutes, as this newspaper advertisement informs. In addition to such advertisements, hospitals advertise on television every twenty minutes. It is truly unbelievable. First, there is an advertisement for men with sexual problems: something to improve performance, increase desire, or help with sexually transmitted diseases. A moment later, there is an advertisement for couples who cannot have children, offering in vitro fertilization (as I assume), which can quickly help them have their desired son or daughter. We change the channel, and here comes an abortion offer. Full service, don't worry, you have no period, you are pregnant, do not hesitate, do not think about it, just come!

I understand that China is overcrowded. I myself get annoyed when I have to stand in a long queue on the sidewalk or cannot squeeze through a market. But could these people simply not be taught what contraception is? Maybe condoms should be distributed for free? Maybe there should be educational programs on this subject, even in rural areas? But why do that, when such a hospital is a profitable business? Imagine that twenty such procedures are performed every day (in one small hospital), resulting in around 20,000 yuan, approximately 9,000 PLN. A woman may never have children in the future, but advertisements do not mention that. Somehow they forgot about it. Who would worry about such things? The most important thing is money; human life has little importance.

Several years ago, there was even a case involving the trade of human fetuses. The story was widely reported, and I learned about it from a documentary broadcast by a Hong Kong television station, produced in Britain or the United States. Fetuses after abortions were packed in hospitals in Shenzhen and sold to Hong Kong. There, wealthy doctors, movie stars, and businessmen allegedly cooked soups from them. Supposedly, such "soups" worked wonderfully for the skin and made people look younger. What am I even writing about? This is simply abnormal, a perversion, but it was a fact that is difficult to believe.

Chinese-style abortion will always disgust me. A fetus cannot be treated like a painful tooth. Even a dentist takes longer than three minutes to remove a tooth, doesn't he? How can such advertisements be published? The only hope lies in progress, education, and condom manufacturers; perhaps they can change something in China. Contraception is probably, after all, a better solution than abortion: a doctor, terrible instruments, fear, pain, uncertainty, and the risk of losing one's health. If China is thinking about progress, which can be seen on the streets – new office buildings, modern factories, increasingly advanced technologies, excellent domestically produced cars – it must also change people's awareness, their behavior, their way of thinking, and above all their knowledge about sex, pregnancy, and abortion, which is by no means a pleasant visit to a smiling doctor.