Even as China forces women to undergo abortions, enforces a horrendous two-child policy, and places Muslims into internment camps, Disney still continues doing business in the country while denouncing the state of Georgia for passing a fetal heartbeat bill.
Last week, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced to Reuters that the company may have to cease all filming in Georgia if the state’s fetal heartbeat bill does not get overturned.
“I think many people who work for us will not want to work there, and we will have to heed their wishes in that regard,” Iger told the outlet. “Right now we are watching it very carefully. If [the bill] becomes law, I don’t see how it’s practical for us to continue to shoot there.”
According to LifeNews, Disney “opened a $5.5 billion resort in Shanghai, China, in 2016,” partnering with the “state-owned media company, Shanghai Shendi Group, for the resort.” Bob Iger even referred to the resort as the company’s “greatest opportunity since buying land in Florida.”
A New York Times report in November of last year also said that China’s growing middle class is a “particularly important growth market for Disney.”
Disney conducts this business with China even as Human Rights Watch reports that Chinese authorities have interned nearly 13 million Muslims. “Authorities dramatically stepped up repression and systematic abuses against the 13 million Turkic Muslims, including Uyghurs and ethnic Kazakhs, in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region,” reported Human Rights Watch. “Authorities have carried out mass arbitrary detention, torture, and mistreatment of some of them in various detention facilities, and increasingly imposed pervasive controls on daily life.”
Disney not only benefits from communist China but also from Middle Eastern countries like Jordan and the United Arab Emirates where abortion has been outlawed in nearly all circumstances. From The Washington Free Beacon:
Iger issued his warning to Georgia ahead of the dedication for a new Star Wars section at Disneyland. It is unclear whether Iger, whose company owns the Star Wars franchise, knows that Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a 2015 movie that Disney distributed, was filmed in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, which outlaws all abortions except when the mother’s life is at risk or when the baby has a fatal “abnormality.” Even in those situations, doctors can only perform abortions within 120 days of pregnancy.
Disney has recently filmed in other countries with strict laws against abortion. Part of the 2019 film Aladdin, which Disney produced, was shot in Jordan. The Jordanian penal code criminalizes abortion. The only exceptions are fetal impairment, when the mother’s life is in danger, and other, limited circumstances to protect her physical and mental health. Otherwise, the mothers—not just the doctors—can be imprisoned.
Netflix has also threatened to boycott Georgia if the fetal heartbeat law persists. The streaming giant has not threatened to stop filming in Jordan or Egypt for their strict abortion laws.