China pays out £7,200 to abortion row woman

The family of a woman forced to have an abortion because she broke China’s one-child policy has accepted a cash settlement, in an attempt by authorities to end a controversy that has caused a public uproar.

Feng Jianmei’s husband, Deng Jiyuan, said the family accepted the settlement of 70,600 yuan (£7,200) because they wanted to return to a normal life.

Mrs Feng was beaten by local officials and forced to abort her baby last month, seven months into her pregnancy, because she did not have 40,000 yuan (£4,000) to pay the fine for having a second child.

Local authorities have often imposed abortions and sterilisations in an effort to meet birth quotas set by Beijing, but photos of Mrs Feng lying on a hospital bed with the blood-covered baby, reportedly stillborn after a chemical injection, set off public sympathy and outrage after they were posted online.

The incident renewed criticism of China’s tough family planning rules.

Chinese authorities issued a rare apology for the incident, sacked two officials and reprimanded five others.

Mr Deng, a villager from central China’s Shaanxi province, said his family was “neither satisfied nor dissatisfied” with the amount of the settlement.

“It has never been about the money. As ordinary people, we can no longer take the pressure from all sides of the society,” he said.

Mr Deng and his family were labelled as traitors by fellow villagers when he tried to get outside attention to the family’s plight.

He later went into hiding before he made it to Beijing to seek legal help.

Mr Deng said the family still wanted another child.