SHANGHAI — China suspended three local family planning officials in northwest China this week following a public outcry over reports that they had forced a young woman to undergo an abortion seven months into her pregnancy, according to Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency.
The suspensions, ordered on Thursday, came just days after graphic photos were posted on the Internet showing a 23-year-old woman named Feng Jianmei lying in a hospital bed with the remains of the fetus, soaked in blood. The story received widespread attention online, and a few days ago it was the most popular topic on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter.
The woman’s husband, who had posted the images, told the Chinese news media that on June 2, family planning officials in Shaanxi Province forced his wife to abort her second child after the couple were told that they had violated the nation’s one-child policy.
The couple had been ordered to pay a $6,300 fine if they wanted to go ahead with the pregnancy, he told the news media. When they failed to pay, Ms. Feng was beaten and given an injection that induced a late-term abortion, the couple said.
Families who disobey the one-child policy are often treated harshly by the Chinese authorities. But the government’s response to the public outcry — punishing local authorities — is unusual.
The family planning officials were also forced to apologize to the woman, according to Xinhua.
The Shaanxi Population and Planning Commission told Xinhua that the local officials had committed a “serious violation” of regulations and suggested that family planning officials in other parts of the country should draw “profound lessons” from the case.
The case comes just weeks after Chen Guangcheng, a blind activist who battled family planning officials in another province, escaped brutal house detention and fled to the United States Embassy in Beijing. With the aid of American officials, he has since been allowed to travel to New York to study. Mr. Chen had campaigned to expose forced sterilizations and abortions.
