The woman, surnamed Li, 20, said that she had previously had three abortions at the same hospital. She came begging for a fourth abortion after her boyfriend and family abandoned her on April 28, according to the Guizhou Broadcast Channel.
Pleading on Her Knees
Much of the drama played out in the doctor’s office, where three doctors shared a table. Li walked into the office barefoot with her shoes in hand. She immediately knelt in front of Zeng.“I am pleading you to help me, I really have no other option,” Li said as she knelt before Zeng. “I’m pregnant, the guy doesn’t want the baby, so he abandoned me. I don’t know what to do now. I’m begging you to give me an abortion.”
Zeng asked Li to sit, and then discussed the situation with her. Li had previously had many different boyfriends, and had received three abortions from the same hospital, the first in 2017, according to KNews, a major short-video news outlet in China.
Li had been abandoned by her boyfriend, and Zeng was moved by her tearful plea.
“Her face was covered in tears as she talked to me. She asked me to save her,” Zeng told the Guizhou Broadcasting Channel.
“She'd had several boyfriends before, and had been abandoned each time, and had several abortions too,” Zeng told the Guizhou Broadcasting Channel. “But this time, all of her family was saddened [by the pregnancy], and they all abandoned her.”
Since there were no relatives willing to sign paperwork, the hospital was reluctant to give Li an abortion.
“I am not signing, and I don’t care about her,” Li’s father said in a phone interview with KNews. “It’s like I don’t even have this daughter.”
The following day, Li came to the hospital once more and repeated the process of kneeling on the ground and pleading for a free abortion.
Li said that whenever she tried to call her boyfriend, he wouldn’t pick up her calls, according to the Guizhou Broadcasting Channel. Even if she tried calling with another number, she said he hangs up right when he hears her voice. “He says he doesn’t acknowledge this child,” Li said.
“I’m 20, so I’m mature, so I can sign for myself, and I can take on all the responsibility,” Li said to the Guizhou Broadcasting Channel. “Even though I don’t have money right now, I'll make sure to work hard to repay all of the money later.”
A Change of Heart
After the surgery, Li was expected to rest in the hospital ward. However, she returned to the doctor’s office where she had previously begged for an abortion, but her tone had completely changed.Now Li was demanding that Zeng loan her money to cover her living expenses. When Zeng refused Li’s request, she began making a tearful scene.
An argument erupted between the two, as Li demanded Zeng to give her money and even a baby as compensation for the abortion. Li threatened to come every day, or to find the doctor after work until her demands were met.
“It’s fine if you don’t let me stay here today, I'll just wait for you to get off work another day,” Li said, indirectly threatening Zeng. “You just do whatever.” Li walks out of the office after making the dismissive comment.
“She said if I hadn’t given her the abortion, she wouldn’t be like this right now,” Zeng said in the security footage.
“You’re harassing me!” Zeng shouted, as Li sat outside of the office. “I’ve offended you? So how have I really wronged you?”
The staff couldn’t put up with Li’s behavior and reported her to the police.
Then Li ran into a side room and grabbed a knife that the staff uses to prepare food. She pointed it at the guard who followed her into the room and said: “Who told you to call the police?”
“Don’t move, and put the knife down,” a security guard said in the video. “Put the knife down.”
“I’m not putting it down,” Li said. But the guard quickly grabbed the knife from her hand. “Move, get outside,” the guard said to her.
“I won’t go!” Li yelled, as she backed herself into the corner near the water cooler.
When the police arrived, they took Li away from the hospital. The reports did not say if she was detained or arrested.
