Pat Robertson Supports Forced Abortions in China, But Opposes Voluntary Abortions
in America
by Jeff Jacoby (April 28, 2001)
In a CNN interview on April 16, 2001, [Pat] Robertson, the founder of the Christian
Coalition and head of the Christian Broadcasting Network, was asked how he reconciles
his support for close ties with China with Beijing's ruthless one-child policy, which
has forced unwanted abortions on tens of millions of women.
"I don't agree with it," Robertson said. "But ... they've got 1.2 billion people,
and they don't know what to do. If every family over there was allowed to have three
or four children, the population would be completely unsustainable.... They're doing
what they have to do."
It would be hard to overstate the moral bankruptcy of those words. China's population-control
laws are a horror. Couples are forced to sign "one-child" agreements, and may not
have that child until they are issued a government quota. Couples who evade the rule
are heavily fined, publicly humiliated, and often sterilized. Women found to be pregnant
without a permit are forced to undergo abortion. Often they are in their eighth or
ninth month.
At times, the government does not even scruple at infanticide: In a widely reported
case last year, officials seized a baby who was born alive despite an attempted abortion
and drowned it before its parents' eyes.
When pro-lifers expressed shock that Robertson could excuse such things, he issued
a "clarification:" He repeated that he personally opposes abortion, but was unwilling
to fault Beijing [!]: The Chinese, he said, "will face a tragic dilemma of massive
proportions if they permit their population to explode."
There is a reason Robertson is so mealy-mouthed: He has invested millions of dollars
in Chinese cable and Internet operations. His partner in one broadcasting deal is
the communist government itself. To protect his financial interests, He depends the
regime's goodwill, and to win it, he is apparently willing to say anything -- even
to defend China's savage destruction of reproductive freedom.
It is a myth that China is too crowded; its population density is one-fifth that
of Taiwan, one-200th that of Manhattan. China suffers not from too many people but
from too little liberty. If Robertson doesn't understand that, his ignorance is shocking.
If he does, he is a contemptible hypocrite. Either way, he is a disgrace, and conservatives
should be the ones to say so.
Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for the Boston Globe
