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In 2012, a five-year-old girl in Shandong province described to me how ten officials had chased her six-months-pregnant mother through the fields to prevent the birth of the family's second child, a boy. She died during the procedure.
Barbara Demick
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote highlights the tragic consequences of strict population control policies on families.

This quote underscores the severe human cost of governmental population control measures, particularly how they can lead to devastating personal tragedies. It illustrates the lengths to which officials will go to enforce such policies, even chasing individuals and causing potential harm or death in the process, thus reflecting on the broader implications of state control over personal reproductive choices.

Themes

Population ControlFamilyTragedyRightsGovernmentLoss

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used to discuss the impact of government policies on individual rights during a seminar on human rights.

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