The Central Election Commission is to hold a hearing tomorrow to discuss a referendum proposal to shorten the time frame for abortions, after the proposal faced opposition from doctors.
Shofar Community Conversion Alliance proposed to amend Article 15 of the Enforcement Rules of Genetic Health Act (優生保健法施行細則) to shorten the period in which induced abortions are allowed from 12 weeks to eight weeks into pregnancy.
A majority of the medical community is opposed to the proposal, said the Taiwan Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology secretary-general Huang Ming-Chao (黃閔照), a gynecologist at the Hsinchu MacKay Memorial Hospital.
Women with irregular menstrual cycles might not even know they are pregnant until eight weeks into their pregnancy, and underage girls or victims of sexual assault often need some time to accept that they are pregnant, Huang said.
Limiting induced abortions in such a way might be “forcing someone to do something they do not want to or cannot do,” and might even lead women to seek abortions at underground clinics, he said.
Romania saw wealthier citizens seek abortions abroad, while poorer people turned to underground abortions due to a similar limit on abortions, Huang said.
The result was that the rate of maternal mortality rose, women’s health was threatened and other related problems were created, he added.
With the exception of religious reasons, the global medical trend today is to “respect women’s autonomy and to prioritize the protection of women’s health,” Huang said.
Furthermore, many genetic tests are not performed, or their results are not available, until more than eight weeks of gestation, he said, adding that results are much clearer at 20 weeks.
If a problem with the fetus is detected, but the woman is unable to undergo an abortion, not every family has the financial means to support a child with special needs, he said.
The Birth Reform Alliance last month condemned the proposal, saying on Facebook that it “intentionally pits women against fetuses.”
The proposal “pushes women who choose induced abortion to the position of ‘infanticide,’” it said, adding that the proposal uses the panic associated with the nation’s declining birthrate to “criminalize” and “stigmatize” women who have abortions.
Some women have “no choice” but to end their pregnancy, it said, calling for more respect and better protection of the rights of women in Taiwan.
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