Behind the silence: Chinese voices on abortion (review)

Nie Jing-Bao's Behind the Silence is a very ambitious book that aims to offer an account of Chinese voices on abortion. The work is partly descriptive, providing authentic individual narratives, personal experience, survey results, and historical investigation. It is also partly normative, drawing out some ethical conclusions by inquiring into coerced abortions associated with China's population program, and by emphasizing the internal plurality of China in order to develop an effective cross-cultural dialogue. His work contributes substantially to an understanding of abortion in China under the one-child policy in both descriptive and normative ways, giving rich texture to the title phrase "behind the silence."

The first chapter provides vivid examples of Chinese people (mostly women) talking about abortion. The main theme that emerges from these accounts is that although most Chinese seem to be silent about abortion (especially late-term abortion) due to political ideology, just as the majority of Westerners, they have strong personal views on abortion. Various perspectives are presented, supporting the conclusion that there are diverse voices on abortion in China, which has become a prominent issue since the implementation of a national family planning policy. Chapter 2 examines the history of the Chinese government's positions on the nation's population issues (from Mao to Deng) and explains the collectivist and statist ethics behind population and abortion policies. In Chapter 3, Nie argues that the official policy on abortion, which has changed historically, is not necessarily in accord with Chinese traditions such as Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, an argument which he supports with reference to Chinese texts.

The core of Nie's book is Chapters 4–6, where he documents his account of Chinese views on abortion. In Chapter 4, he distinguishes different religious groups in China and concludes from his survey results that "religion was the most significant factor in influencing Chinese people's views on abortion and related issues, while gender, perhaps surprisingly, had no significant influence" (132). This is an interesting and pioneering point that is worthy of further exploration. The next two chapters offer interviews with women, as well as with doctors (mostly female doctors) in China. Nie's interpretation suggests that the Chinese people's opinions do generally reflect China's political ideology and are in accord with the official Chinese views on abortion and population control policies, though this does not extend to forced abortion.

The last two chapters put forward normative concerns regarding coerced abortion. Nie argues that coerced abortion is justified as a last resort, given the failure of other methods in implementing China's population control policy. This is controversial, and bound to be a big surprise to Western audiences. He emphasizes the plurality of Chinese society, thus explaining diverse opinions among Chinese people on late-term abortion, and defends the temporary necessity of China's population policy.

Nie's book is an important contribution and has many merits. A particular strength of the book is the degree to which Nie succeeds in eliciting diverse voices, including those who have experienced forced abortion and professionals who rigorously examine their work under the strict one-child policy. Yet, it is possible to point out some shortcomings.

First, it is ironic that although the book is directed to Western readers, it falls short of fully addressing the issues that most concern them. The book is focused on late-term abortion, a procedure about which most Westerners have more or less firm views. Arguably, the Western debate centers on early-term abortion. And although residents of China can benefit from reading about late-term abortion, the questions of when life begins and whether the fetus has rights are not sufficiently addressed. Furthermore, Nie employs Western terminology without explaining its background. This impedes cross-cultural understanding. A related concern is that the survey questions Nie relies upon may be biased because of difficulties in translating Western concepts.

The book also suffers from a dearth of discussion of the role played...