Last week, USA Today ran another piece on the growing, global outrage over state-sanctioned kidnapping and forced abortion in China. The story focuses on Pan Chunyan, who was eight-months pregnant when she was kidnapped from her grocery store in April, and Feng Jianmei, who was seven-months pregnant when she was kidnapped from her home in June. Chunyan was held for four days before being forced to undergo a chemical abortion. Her son was born dead on April 8, "black and blue all over." Jianmei was forced into a similar, chemical abortion on June 2, before giving birth to a dead daughter.

In years past, stories like this would never have seen the light of day, but thanks to the combination of photographs and the world wide web (along with the efforts of crusaders like Chen Guancheng), China's media lockdown is crumbling. After Jianmei's abortion, her sister took a picture of Jianmei passed out on a hospital bed next to her dead infant. A cousin posted the image online. The gruesome picture spread like wildfire, forcing Chinese authorities to publicly account for what has long been their "private" practice.

There are a number of things worth noting in the USA Today article and I'll start with a remark from Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), who chairs the House subcommittee on global health and human rights. Though only 10% of China's 13 million annual abortions are considered "forced," Smith asserts that because of China's one-child policy, it is more accurate to classify all Chinese abortions as forced. Even those women who aren't abducted by government thugs must pay a huge fine if they want to carry an unsanctioned pregnancy to term. As such, every abortion in China is performed under coercion.

Rep. Smith's assertion is an accurate one, but we should actually go much further. The fact is, every abortion in the world is a forced abortion, because in every single one, the human being who is most affected by the abortion never gave their consent. No matter where you stand on the issue of abortion, there is no denying that abortion has a more significant impact on the life of the child than it does on the life of the mother. It ends the life of the child, which is the most significant change a life can undergo. In every nation, and at every stage of pregnancy, abortion is forced upon the human being that is being killed.

The second point to notice from the article is that the tactics endorsed by the Communist agent interviewed by USA Today are remarkably similar to the tactics employed by Planned Parenthood. Wang Jinding, supervisor of family planning enforcement, says that the key to securing an abortion is "to separate the pregnant woman from her family members." Though the context is different here, the abortion industry in the United States is just as committed to legally separating pregnant minors from their parents—as evidenced by their consistent opposition to any parental notification requirement and the judicial workarounds they offer when such restrictions are put in place. Last year's furor over even the most lax Plan B restrictions further illustrates how committed Planned Parenthood is to isolating teen girls from the oversight of their parents.

Thirdly, it's telling that though the Obama administration says it opposes forced abortion, it restored taxpayer funding to a UN agency tied to China's one-child policy and opposes a bill sponsored by Rep. Smith to revoke that funding. And it was only last year, remember, when Vice President Biden told a Chinese audience that he "fully understood" their one-child policy. Kat Lewis, director of communication for the non-profit, All Girls Allowed, says there is no evidence that the White House is applying any pressure on China for their egregious human rights abuses—which is a problem I addressed earlier this year.

Finally, the article notes that despite mounting, global outrage and the increasing realization that China's aging crisis and labor shortage have direct ties to family planning, actually removing the one-child policy may be an economic impossibility. The article states:

Another reason why the policy will probably remain is the army of family planner bureaucrats nationwide who depend on its collateral benefit: It boosts their salaries. Authorities across China collect more than $3 billion a year from "out-of-policy" pregnancies, according to China Economic Weekly magazine. Many Chinese say that money winds up in the pockets of corrupt bureaucrats.

Tragically, Pan Chunyan's husband had actually raised the $8,640 penalty demanded by Communist officials before they abducted Chunyan, but he wasn't able to distribute it to the host of necessary officials before the abortion took place. Just like in America, family planning is a lucrative business, and money has a sordid history of trumping morality. For all these reasons, it's important to remember that the injustices happening in China are not all that different from the injustices happening in America and the rest of the developed world. We may not be kidnapping pregnant women and forcing them to abort, but every abortion is forced upon the helpless human being who is killed in the process.