China confirms forced abortion case after uproar 
 
 BEIJING — Chinese authorities confirmed Thursday that a woman was forced to abort seven months into her pregnancy, several days after her plight came to light when images of her baby's corpse were posted online. 
 
 Rights groups have blamed authorities in north China's Shaanxi province for forcing Feng Jianmei to abort her pregnancy because she failed to pay a hefty fine for exceeding China's strict "one-child" population control policy. 
 
 The Shaanxi provincial government said in a statement that a preliminary probe had confirmed the case was "basically true", and the investigators have recommended action be taken against the perpetrators. 
 
 "This is a serious violation of the National Population and Family Planning Commission's policies, jeopardises the population control work and has caused uneasiness in society," the provincial government said on its website. 
 
 The government did not pinpoint exactly who the perpetrators were, but vowed to avoid a repeat of such a case, which it said was against regulations in effect since 2001 banning late-term abortions. 
 
 Chinese web users have reacted in anger to the abortion, with one comparing it to acts perpetrated by "Japanese devils and Nazis", after photos online showed Feng lying on a hospital bed next to the blood-smeared body of her baby. 
 
 A relative told AFP on Wednesday that Feng and her husband had opposed the termination. 
 
 An official at the national family planning commission who declined to be named said earlier that the commission viewed the matter as "serious and important" and that the probe was being handled at the "top level". 
 
 China has implemented its draconian family planning policy since the late 1970s in an effort to control a population that has grown to 1.3 billion people, the world's largest. 
 
 Under the policy, urban families are generally allowed to have one child, while rural families can give birth to two children if the first is a girl. They have to pay a fine if they contravene the rules. 
 
 Rights groups say that as a result of the policy, thousands of women have been forced by authorities to terminate their pregnancies. 
 
 Blind activist Chen Guangcheng, who recently left China for the United States after fleeing house arrest, was once jailed after angering local officials for bringing to light hundreds of forced abortions. 
 
 Official statistics show that since the start of the policy, the number of abortions peaked in 1983, with a total of 14.37 million terminations that year. 
 
 The US said Monday it has expressed opposition to China's one-child policy after activists reported that a five-month-pregnant woman faces an imminent forced abortion in a separate case. 
 
 "We make no secret that the United States strongly oppose all aspects of China's coercive birth limitation policies, including forced abortion and sterilisation, and we always raise these issues with the Chinese government," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. 
 
 Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved. More » ||||| Image caption China's birth control policy has drawn much criticism 
 
 A photo showing a foetus whose mother was forced to have an abortion has shocked China web users. 
 
 Feng Jiamei, from Shaanxi province, was made to undergo the procedure in the seventh month of pregnancy, local officials said after investigating. 
 
 Ms Feng was forced into the abortion as she could not pay the fine for having a second child, US-based activists said. 
 
 Rights groups say China's one-child policy has meant women being coerced into abortions, which Beijing denies. 
 
 "Feng Jianmei's story demonstrates how the One-Child Policy continues to sanction violence against women every day," said Chai Ling of the US-based activist group All Girls Allowed. 
 
 The group says it spoke to Ms Feng and her husband Deng Jiyuan after the incident. Mr Deng said his wife had been forcibly taken to hospital and restrained before the procedure. 
 
 The BBC's Jon Sudworth in Shanghai says such allegations are nothing new in China, but what has made this one different is a widely circulated photo of the woman lying next to the baby's corpse. 
 
 Media reports from China says Ms Feng has been traumatised by what has happened. 
 
 Chinese law clearly prohibits abortions beyond six months. 
 
 'Harmed image of family planning' 
 
 Unnamed local officials in Zhenping county - where the incident took place - denied forcing Ms Feng to have the abortion, local media reports say. 
 
 But a preliminary investigation by the Shaanxi Provincial Population and Family Planning Commission confirmed the forced abortion had taken place. 
 
 Without naming Ms Feng, it said in a statement that the woman had been seven months pregnant. 
 
 "Such practice has seriously violated the relevant policies set by national and provincial family planning commissions, which harmed the image of our family planning work, and caused extremely poor effects in society," said the statement. 
 
 "Based on the findings, we have requested the local government to punish the relevant officers according to law," it said. 
 
 Internet users expressed outrage. 
 
 "This is what they say the Japanese devils and Nazis did. But it's happening in reality and it is by no means the only case... They [the officials] should be executed," one reader on news website netease.com said, according to the AFP news agency. 
 
 Activist Chen Guangcheng, who was put under virtual house arrest for campaigning against forced abortions, fled China to the US last month.
– It's the kind of story you fervently hope is an Internet hoax: a picture of a bloody fetus next to a woman in a hospital bed makes the rounds online, supposedly offering proof that China forced her to have an abortion in her seventh month of pregnancy. But as the AFP reports, it's "basically true," or so admitted China today. Rights groups say Feng Jianmei, a woman in the northern Shaanxi province, was forced to end her pregnancy after she didn't pay a sizable fine for planning to have a second child. The BBC reports that the US-based All Girls Allowed spoke to Feng's husband, who told them she was forced to go to the hospital, and restrained once there. "This is a serious violation of the National Population and Family Planning Commission's policies, jeopardizes the population control work, and has caused uneasiness in society," the provincial government said in an online statement. It recommended that those behind the abortion, who have not been identified, be punished. Late-term abortions have been banned in China since 2001.