How ‘pro-life’ is dissident Chen Guangcheng?

When blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng made a daring escape from house arrest this spring and found refuge in the U.S. embassy in Beijing, he instantly became a popular hero in the West and a rallying point for human rights activists everywhere.

For abortion opponents in the U.S., however, Chen was much more than that: he was an icon of the pro-life cause, a man whose campaign against forced abortion in China made him a potent champion in the fight against legal abortion in America.

Antiabortion groups in the U.S. regularly cited Chen in their press releases and fund-raising materials, using Chen’s plight—and the slow pace of the diplomatic negotiations that eventually brought him to safety in New York—as fodder for promoting their cause and galvanizing opposition to President Obama.