The Mother Of Baby Found In Chinese Sewer Has A Super Desperate Story

Yesterday we reported on the baby who was found trapped, but alive, in a sewer pipe in Jinhua City, China. He has since been named Baby No. 59 for the incubator he is currently residing in. Now the authorities have interviewed the mother, and her story includes an abortion she wished she could afford and the baby’s father who wouldn’t help her out.

According to the unnamed mother, she became pregnant after having a one night stand. She claims that the father would not take responsibility and she wasn’t able to afford an abortion. So she hid her pregnancy using strips of cloth around her stomach and baggy clothing. She admitted to police that when she realized she was in labor she went to the bathrooms in her apartment building and gave birth. It was there that she accidentally dropped the baby into the drain. From what I can see in the video below the police seem to believe her.

This story sounds dubious at best, but not impossible.

There was a point when China had universal healthcare and abortions were given to women who wanted them regardless of economic status. But all of that changed in the late 1980s when healthcare reforms caused over nine hundred million Chinese people to lose access to healthcare. Rural women and women without money no longer had access to reproductive care like abortions.

I’m not going to try to delve into the intricacies of the Chinese health care system or the problems with the one-child policy. What I can say is that, knowing what I know about the situation, I can understand how a woman like the mother of Baby No. 59 might find herself in such a predicament. Did she try to kill her baby? I don’t know. We might never know. But as horrifying as that prospect is, nothing will change until the policies change that allow these tragedies to occur.

DISCLAIMER: Video may be difficult to watch. Discretion is advised

(Photo: YouTube)