Opinion ID: 798065
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Withholding of Removal Eligibility for Forced Abortion

Text: 21 Tang also argues that his application for withholding of removal should be granted because of the forced abortion performed on Li Zhen. See Wang v. Ashcroft, 341 F.3d 1015, 1022-23 (9th Cir.2003) (concluding that victim of forced abortion was entitled to withholding of removal). In Qu v. Gonzales, 399 F.3d 1195 (9th Cir.2005), we held that victims of forced sterilization were entitled, without more, to withholding of removal. Id. at 1203. After detailing the extensive regulatory and statutory history of population control policies, we held that forced sterilizations are a unique form of persecution that cause continuous and permanent effects. Id. at 1202. Although the issue was not before us, we noted in a footnote that a forced abortion is sufficiently like a forced sterilization that it likely result[s] in statutory entitlement to asylum eligibility and withholding of removal. Id. at 1202 n. 8. 22 Both forced abortion and forced sterilization share unusual characteristics including the pain, psychological trauma, and shame resulting from a forced procedure. Id. Both forms of persecution have serious, ongoing effects. Id. A woman who has had a forced abortion has experienced unwanted governmental interference into one of the most fundamental and personal of decisions: whether she will have a child. The effects of that intrusion last a lifetime. In addition, the governmental infringement on a woman's bodily integrity during a forced abortion results in, as one Congressman described it, one of the most gruesome human rights violations in the history of the world. 142 Cong. Rec. H2633 (daily ed. Mar. 21, 1996) (statement of Rep. Christopher Smith). We see no way to distinguish between the victims of forced sterilization and the victims of forced abortion for withholding of removal eligibility purposes. We conclude that, like those who have undergone forced sterilization, victims of forced abortion are entitled by virtue of that fact alone to withholding of removal. See Qu, 399 F.3d at 1203.