Interview with Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers
by Ilaria Biancacci
“I believe that everyone is called to take some form of action, however small or large, to build a better world”. Reggie Littlejohn is President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, a broad-based coalition that opposes forced abortion and human trafficking in China. In addition, she serves as an expert on China’s One-Child Policy for Human Rights Without Frontiers, based in Brussels, Belgium, as well as the China Aid Association, based in Texas. When she was a law student at Yale she volunteered for Mother Teresa in India. “Mother Teresa is my inspiration, especially with respect to saving baby girls. She started her home for abandoned babies, Shishu Bhavan, when she found a baby girl in a trashcan. I had the privilege of working with her for six weeks in Calcutta and I still remember her modesty and ability to show every child such compassion. It was truly inspiring”.
How did your journey as an attorney started and why did you decide to dedicate your life to saving chinese women and protect their rights with “Women’s Rights Without Frontiers”?
I’m a litigation attorney, and in the 90’s I represented a Chinese refugee in her case for political asylum in the United States, she had been persecuted as a Christian and forcibly sterilized. She had been dragged out of her home screaming and crying, held down to a table and brutally sterilized. I was shocked. Before that, I had known about China One Child Policy, but I did not know that it is currently enforced through forced abortion, forced sterilization and infanticide. I was invited to testify at the European Parliament in 2008, and I found that no one had dedicated their life to this issue. The more research I did, the more appalled I became.
China’s One Child Policy causes more violence to women and girls than any other official policy on earth and any other official policy in the history of the world. One out of every five women on earth is under the One Child Policy.
Which are the reasons why China and the CCP are fighting this war against women and girls?
September 25, 2020 will be the 40th anniversary of the One Child Policy. Since that time, the Chinese Communist Party has boasted that it has “prevented” 400 million lives through the One Child Policy. These lives were “prevented” too often through forced abortion, involuntary sterilization, and even infanticide.
These practices remain today, under the Two Child Policy – especially against the Uyghur ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. The reason initially given for the institution of the One Child Policy was population control. Now, with the Uyghurs, the purpose seems to be to cripple or crush this ethnic minority group.
Under the Two Child Policy, coercive population control continues in China, though it is unevenly enforced. There are places in China where they are encouraging or even pressuring eligible couples to have a second child, because of China’s rapidly aging population. Nevertheless, it remains illegal for single women to give birth, and third children are illegal.
What is the impact of this gender imbalance generated by the One Child Policy on society, marriages and men/women relationships?
The gender imbalance comes through gendercide or femicide – the aborting or fatal neglect of babies and children because they are female. Gendercide is not a Chinese government policy. It stems from a cultural preference for boys and results in pressure from a woman’s family (usually her husband and his parents) to abort or abandon baby girls. The result is that there are now an estimated 30 to 40 million more men living in China than women. This gender disparity is the driving force behind sexual slavery and forced brides.
Women’s Rights Without Frontiers is the only organization in the world that has a network inside of China that is saving baby girls and widows. Our Save a Girl Campaign has saved hundreds of baby girls from sex-selective abortion and abandonment, as well as severe poverty.
Are men fighting to support women against forced abortion and sterilization?
The greatest hero in the fight against forced abortion and sterilization in China is a man: blind activist Chen Guangcheng. For his efforts he was jailed and tortured, and his family heavily persecuted. I mounted an international campaign to free them, and they managed to escape to the United States.
Severe persecution is what happens to anyone, male or female, who tries to expose the human rights abuses of the CCP, while still living in China. China does not have freedom of expression. I feel morally obligated to speak, because I have freedom of speech.
How is China, and mainly the CCP, reacting to Women’s Rights Without Frontiers’ work? Which are the obstacles you are facing?
The CCP, of course, denies that it practices forced abortion. I expose it, and am building a movement against it. The main obstacle I face is not persecution by the CCP, but apathy of those outside China. It’s not easy to find people who care about women’s rights on the other side of the earth.
Why is this problem nearly unknown outside China?
It’s unknown not only in Italy and Europe, but all over the world. One reason this problem is nearly unknown is due to the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda machine. The CCP wants the world to believe that the coercive enforcement of the One Child Policy is a thing of the past. This is far from the truth. Nevertheless, when tourists go to China and ask about whether the One Child Policy is enforced through forced abortion, typically, the tour guide will say that if you want to have a second child, you just need to pay a fine. What they don’t tell tourists is the fact that these fines can reach ten times a person’s annual salary! Since the vast majority of Chinese citizens cannot afford to pay these fines, what’s left for them? That’s why Women’s Rights Without Frontiers is so necessary. We are a leading voice to expose the truth about China’s One Child Policy. To this end, I’ve testified twice before the European Parliament, and once at the British Parliament, the United States Congress, and the White House. I’ve also twice met with officials at the Vatican and the United States Department of State.We’re doing everything we can to sound the alarm that this is the biggest women’s rights issue in the world today
How is your work organized on the field? Do you also rely on the help of local organizations?
The location of the fieldworkers in our Save a Girl Campaign is secret, for fear of reprisal by the CCP. For the same reason, we cannot collaborate with any local organizations, for their own safety.
We work by word of mouth. Women who are already being helped by us, will tell us of other women who are being pressured to abort or abandon their baby girls. We go to their doors and congratulate them on their daughters, saying “Girls are as good as boys!” This is a message not heard in the Chinese countryside. We offer them $25 a month for a year to help them support their baby girls. With these funds, they are able to convince their husbands and in-laws to let them keep their daughters. We have saved hundreds of baby girls in the Chinese countryside this way.
Can you tell us more about the “Save a Widow Campaign” and how widows are becoming the invisible victims of the One Child Policy.
China has the highest female suicide rate in the world. According to a State Department Report, 590 women end their lives every day in China. China also has a skyrocketing rate of senior suicide. The One Child Policy has destroyed the family structure in China. In the past, the Chinese enjoyed large families and it was not a burden for children and grandchildren to support the elderly. Now many elderly are completely abandoned and destitute, especially elderly widows. And the sad solution for many is to end their lives. They are the invisible victims of the One Child Policy.
Our fieldworkers will come to their door and tell them that we want to help them because as human beings, they have great dignity and infinite value. We offer them a monthly stipend of $25, just to help them live.
These abandoned women are intensely grateful that someone cares about them, even though their own families and government have abandoned them. They cannot believe that someone from the other side of the world would just help them without asking for anything in return. They have never experienced anything like this in their long, hard lives in the Chinese countryside.
