The U.S. Supreme Court has turned down an appeal by a Chinese man who sought asylum due to a forced abortion on his wife. Yi Qiang Yang was 20 when he married his 17 year-old wife. Because they were too young to be legally married, they had a traditional marriage. Authorities forced his wife to have an abortion when she was eight months pregnant, due to a controversial family planning policy that generally limits couples to having only one child.
In 1996, an asylum law was enacted for victims of China’s policy on children. The Bush administration has supported asylum for women, but has resisted the male partners’ efforts to get asylum. U.S. immigration authorities and some courts have used the distinction between traditional and legal marriage to deny asylum. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to deny the appeal was made without comment from the justices.
Source: http://news.findlaw.com/ap/a/w/1154//05-12-2008/20080512085004_15.html
