Lancaster County’s representative in the U.S. House, Republican Joe Pitts, issued the following statement this afternoon in the case of Arzigul Tursun, who six months pregnant with her third child and, according to ABC News reports, under guard in a hospital in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region scheduled to undergo an abortion against her will because authorities say she is entitled to only two children.

“I call on the Chinese Government to immediately intervene in order to stop any forced abortion from taking place,” Pitts said.  “Though we know Chinese authorities regularly use forced abortions to enforce its coercive population control program, carrying out this brutal procedure with the world watching Arzigul Tursun’s case would display an utter disregard for any notion of human rights by the Chinese authorities.  The Chinese Government should immediately release her from custody and allow her to carry her child to term.”