U.S. Circuit Court Of Appeals Rules That Women Who Underwent Forced Abortions Can Seek Asylum In U.S.

U.S. Circuit Court Of Appeals Rules That Women Who Underwent Forced Abortions Can Seek Asylum In U.S.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Wednesday unanimously ruled that women from other countries, such as China, who are forced to undergo abortion can be awarded asylum in the U.S., the AP/Houston Chronicle reports (Elias, AP/Houston Chronicle, 6/6). A three-judge panel of the court in March 2005 ruled that women who were forcibly sterilized under China's "coercive population control policies" and their husbands are entitled to political asylum in the U.S. (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 3/10/05).

The panel on Wednesday said that women who underwent forced abortion should receive the same protection given to women who underwent forced sterilizations, according to the AP/Chronicle. The panel in its ruling wrote that both forced abortion and sterilization have "serious, ongoing effects," adding, "We see no way to distinguish between the victims of forced sterilization and the victims of forced abortion for withholding of removal eligibility purposes."

The court made the determination based on the case of Zi Zhi Tang, whose wife in 1980 was forced to undergo an abortion in China because the couple was not yet married, the AP/Chronicle reports. Zi Zhi's employer, a Chinese construction company, in 1991 sent him and his wife to Guam to work on a project. Immigration officials in 2002 notified Zi Zhi that his worker's visa had expired, and he was instructed to leave the country. Zi Zhi appealed the order, saying that his wife had suffered persecution in China because of the forced abortion.

An immigration judge ruled that the abortion was not forced because Zi Zhi's wife did not hide after receiving a notice about the planned abortion from Chinese officials and ordered that the couple be deported. The appeals court overturned the decision of the lower court, finding that an official order to undergo abortion constitutes force. Zi Zhi's attorney and an attorney for the Department of Justice, which argued for the deportation, declined to comment.

source : www.medicalnewstoday.com