Update, 3:58 p.m. Tuesday, E.S.T.: Deng Jiyuan called his sister, Deng Jicai, on Tuesday afternoon to report that he was safe, Ms. Deng told Edward Wong of The Times.

HONG KONG — The Chinese man who published photographs online of his wife and their dead fetus — government officials forced her to submit to an abortion at seven months — has gone missing after being tracked by security officials and thugs, according to his sister. The family has been hounded by banner-waving protesters who called them traitors and said they should be beaten and expelled from their town.

The South China Morning Post reported Tuesday that the husband and father, Deng Jiyuan, had been “constantly followed” for the past week by several men — “local officials and thugs,” according to his sister, Deng Jicai.

The family is now worried about Mr. Deng’s safety because he has been unreachable since Sunday night.

Rendezvous reported about the gruesome case 10 days ago, citing interviews with Mr. Deng, 29, and his wife, Feng Jianmei, 23. The couple did not want an abortion but also were unable or unwilling to pay a fine of about $6,300 under the provisions of China’s one-child policy. They already have one child.

“They gave her the injection on June 2, and the child was stillborn at 3 a.m. on the morning of June 4,” Mr. Deng said in an interview with Radio Free Asia. “They gave the injection directly into the child’s head.”

In one of the photos that Mr. Deng posted online, his wife lies on a single hospital bed. Next to her, on a rectangle of plastic, is the dead fetus, still bloody. The photo can be seen here, but a warning: It is very explicit.

Three local family planning officials in Shaanxi Province were suspended for forcing the abortion.

The Morning Post, which is published in Hong Kong, beyond the direct reach of Chinese government censors, quoted Mr. Deng’s sister as saying her brother had been tracked by security officers as he visited his wife — who remains in the hospital and is said to be emotionally distraught — and even during trips to the toilet.

Ms. Deng told the paper that harassment of the family had started when her brother prepared to travel to Beijing last week to give interviews about the abortion.

“He was then watched, followed, stopped and even beaten during several attempts to leave for the capital,” said the Morning Post article by Zhuang Pinghui.

The harassment worsened, she said, when the family gave an interview to the German newsmagazine Stern last Friday. The banner protest then took place on Sunday.

“We feel like prisoners,” Ms. Deng said.

Photographs of the banners are here, but it was unclear from various reports whether the protest had occurred at the family’s home, outside the hospital, or both. The banners read that the family members were traitors for speaking to foreign journalists and should be beaten and expelled from the town.

The Morning Post said an official in Zhenping County had denied any government involvement in the protest against the family.

There has been little comment on Ms. Feng’s case in the official Chinese media, although it certainly didn’t go unnoticed. It was referenced in a People’s Daily piece cited by David Bandurski of the China Media Project at the University of Hong Kong. (People’s Daily is published by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.)

“China has worked actively to tell China’s story, making ‘China’s voice’ resound,” the piece said. It laments the outcry over the forced abortion, saying, “How can you calculate the kind of adverse impact a story like that has on China’s international image?”

Many commenters on Sina Weibo, the popular Twitter-like service in China, alleged that the local government had enlisted a “water army” — people paid to post comments online and in newspapers to sway public opinion.

The well-known Ministry of Tofu blog cited various disparaging comments on Weibo that said Ms. Deng, the sister, had sold out her country and was destined for a career in Japanese pornography. Another commenter said the victimized mother, Ms. Feng, was “the most pampered pregnant woman in the town’s history.”

The Ministry of Tofu also cited Ms. Deng’s response on Weibo:

“I feel like crying but have no tears. Where is justice? Zengjia Township, where I was born and brought up, how can I still love you? I just don’t understand in what way I have committed treason! I don’t know what you mean by calling me a ‘traitor.’ My lord, in what way I have sold the People’s Republic of China? I didn’t beg you for pity for my miserable sister-in-law. I didn’t ask you for even the slightest bit of sympathy. Just get lost! Let us go home!!!”

Another blog, China Smack, listed numerous online comments (including Chinese and English versions). Many of the responses were angry and scatological, and one commenter said the family had erred by talking to foreign reporters:

“Originally it was a small matter, but now it has been intentionally made into a big fuss. The Family Planning Bureau has already admitted to their error, and you still go find foreign journalists? You must know, what foreign journalists are the best at is deceiving the masses who can’t figure out the truth, starting fires and fanning the flames, wantonly exaggerating our faults, to achieve their despicable goals.”

A number of commenters denounced the officials who had forced the abortion on Ms. Feng — “Suspended/relieved from office? Even executing them wouldn’t be going too far,” said one — while others said the officials had apologized and had been punished appropriately.