cover image A Mother's Ordeal: One Woman's Fight Against China's One-Child Policy

A Mother's Ordeal: One Woman's Fight Against China's One-Child Policy

Steven W. Mosher. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P, $21.95 (335pp) ISBN 978-0-15-162662-5

This is the story of the ordeal of Chi An, a Chinese mother, and her fight to escape being a victim of China's family-planning policies of the 1980s. These allowed no more than one child per couple under threat of public criticism, heavy fines or job demotion. Mosher ( Journey to the Forbidden China ) dramatically portrays the hardships imposed by the Cultural Revolution, particularly by government population control. This included mandatory use of IUDs; the presence of community spies; raids during which pregnant women were dragged to clinics for forced abortions (often in the third trimester of pregnancy); and the sterilization of both men and women--procedures at which, as a nurse, Chi An was obliged to assist. Having conceived a second child while traveling in the U.S., Chi An and her husband would have been deported without the author's successful appeal, which helped establish China's one-child policy as ground for political asylum. Major ad/promo; author tour. (July)