Abortion in Vietnam - Higest abortion rate in the world - "I'm sorry child"

Vietnam has the highest abortion rate in the world. Babies are aborted at any month during development. The interesting thing is that entire cemeteries are built for the babies. People travel to them to ask forgiveness from the dead babies.

Xin loi con - I'm sorry child

A man stands alone in a cemetery weeping over a small, shallow grave filled with sand. Beneath the sand lays twin 7-month-developed fetus boys. The man draws a line down the middle with his finger and shakes his head in silence.

"This is not good," he says in Vietnamese over and over. "They were so handsome. They had fingers and hair. They were so handsome."

According to studies published in 1999, Vietnam had the highest abortion rate in the world with 83 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44. This number represents public-sector abortions only. The total abortion rate indicates that the average woman would have 2.5 abortions during her lifetime if the rate were to remain at this level.

"Xin loi con" translates into "I'm sorry child". The title is taken from messages written all over fetus cemeteries saying, "Your parents apologize child". There are 10 of these fetus cemeteries throughout Vietnam mostly run by Franciscan sects of the Catholic church. Fetuses are collected from hospitals and private clinics. In some cemeteries the caretakers will pour alcohol on the 2- to 3-month-developed fetuses to insure that they burn completely in the makeshift crematory. While others have enough land space to bury the babies whole.

Vietnamese people migrate from all over the country to come and pray to the dead babies. They burn paper money and paper clothes to offer up to the babies. They believe the dead babies have angry spirits for not being born. Some parents even bring small milk boxes to open and leave on the grave sites. One milk box read in English, "Nurturing the talent of our future."

The main problem is there is no sexual education. It is an embarrassing topic that does not want to be brought up in households. The other issue is deep-seeded cultural roots. In the countryside, when a woman becomes pregnant and she is not married, they are often kicked out of the homes. The often quick solution becomes a $30 abortion. They are legal in Vietnam. Babies are aborted throughout every trimester, often times between 7-9 months in development.

Some people attempt to detour women from having abortions by offering halfway houses for them to live until they give birth. Here some women learn to become mothers. But most don't even want to look at their child after birth, let alone name them. The mothers often leave the newborns with churches and return to their old lives in the countryside as if nothing had ever happened.

In 2008, officials proposed to return to a two-child only law that was abandoned in 2003. A spike in the county's population caused panic within the communist nation that has twice the population density of China. The law, which is expected to pass, will surely increase the abortion rate.

There is one children's hospital for all of southern Vietnam. The neonatal unit overflows on a regular basis. Nurses place the babies on the floors of the hallways and bathrooms. They write the baby's family name on masking tape and stick it to their foreheads. The tape often falls off and babies end up being switched. A new father showed up early to the hospital one day and when the doctors asked him the reason, he said he wanted the pick of the best looking baby.

Now, 10 years after the abortion rate study was published, there are no new numbers. Nothing to prove or disprove Vietnam's global ranking. But the problem is still real. With the majority of Vietnam's population around the age of 35, some officials are worried that if population growth is stunted too much, there will not be a viable work force in the years to come.

I have been living in Vietnam for the past 8 months learning the language and culture. I have investigated this project from Ho Chi Minh City to the central highlands. I have slept on the floor next to 8 pregnant mothers and I have had disturbing dreams after photographing chopped up fetuses. But to really understand the culture you have to live in it. I will continue to learn and photograph this emerging country and the important issue of population control.

Rank: 72