In the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics, the U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation Wednesday calling on the Chinese government to end human-rights abuses.
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., attached an amendment to H.R. 1370 that names China's one-child policy among its human-rights abuses. The policy is enforced by coerced abortions and fines of up to 10 times a worker's annual salary.
Smith said tens of millions of girls have died at the hands of China's sex-selection abortions.
"China’s coercive population-control program has imposed unspeakable violence, pain and humiliation on hundreds of millions of Chinese women, many of whom suffer lifelong depression as a consequence," Smith said in a news release.