The Ministry of Justice dramatically set back women’s rights when it proposed raising the maximum penalty for women undergoing illegal abortions by more than 26-fold. While it has since withdrawn the proposal, its initiation reveals a bleak reality: For all of Taiwan’s pride in its protection of individual freedoms, it falls woefully short in safeguarding the reproductive rights of women, who account for half of the total population.
At the heart of the paradox lies a solution: A sweeping legislative overhaul that decriminalizes abortion and empowers women to decide what is best for their bodies without requiring anyone else’s consent.
Women’s reproductive freedoms continue to be collateral damage from an archaic legal system criminalizing women for terminating pregnancies. It is surprising that, nearly eight decades after the end of Japanese colonial rule, little has changed when it comes to women’s reproductive autonomy. Women are still denied agency over their bodies, with access to abortion remaining shackled to the Criminal Code.
The Awakening Foundation, a nonprofit women’s rights group, wrote in a statement published on Nov. 1 that the government deems it necessary to exert control over women’s reproductive autonomy, going so far as to mandate sanctions against those seeking agency over their own bodies.
Indeed, the current laws are framed in a way that ending unplanned pregnancies is not considered a fundamental human right. Instead, the Genetic Health Act (優生保健法) exempts women and those who assist them from prosecution in certain circumstances, including rape, fetal abnormalities or threats to the mental or physical health of the mother.
However, the act fails to address that women are still oppressed by the entrenched patriarchy in Taiwan’s legislative system. Under its provisions, spousal consent is mandatory for married women to get an abortion — a requirement that hardly serves any purpose other than to reinforce state-sanctioned misogyny.
That outdated law allows abusive husbands to exploit their rights, wielding it as leverage to blackmail or retaliate against women seeking an abortion. Vulnerable women are left with a cruel dilemma: carrying pregnancies to term against their will or resorting to unsafe underground medical practices at the risk of prosecution.
With the looming threat of prosecution, how can we ensure women make informed decisions about their bodies that best serve their own interests — not anyone else’s?
This regressive policy places Taiwan at odds with much of the world. A UN report published in 2017 states that only 14 percent of countries require spousal consent, underscoring Taiwan’s outdated attitude toward women’s reproductive health.
In addition, the government has not been shy about limiting women’s choices over their own bodies. Prior to the passage of the Genetic Health Act in 1984, the Criminal Code forbade women to terminate pregnancies even in cases of sexual assault.
Lin Chih-chieh (林志潔), a professor specializing in gender laws at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, said in her research in 2009 that enacting the Genetic Health Act was never about safeguarding women’s reproductive freedom, but about granting the government control over the population.
Fast-forward four decades later and little has changed.
In the proposed draft, the ministry claimed that decriminalizing abortion was off the table because “illegal” abortions harm the nation’s birthrate. As usual, women are expected to shoulder the responsibility of assuaging society’s panic over Taiwan’s demographic crisis, despite mounting research showing that young people are delaying parenthood because they simply cannot afford it.
Instead of squandering taxpayers’ hard-earned money on prosecuting women for ending unwanted pregnancies, the government can do better by supporting would-be parents in tackling real issues, such as unaffordable housing, stagnant wages, soaring living costs, workplace discrimination and gender inequality.
The laws that reduce women to little more than womb carriers would never encourage them to have more children — real choice and affordable childcare would.
The bottom line is that we must not leave an open door for those who wish to dominate women by holding their bodies hostage. The battle for reproductive justice is not exclusive to women. We do not have the luxury of separating women’s bodily autonomy from broader economic and societal challenges. Decriminalizing abortion and restoring women’s reproductive rights is the first step toward building an equitable society, one that welcomes and empowers potential parents instead of pushing them away.
Lo Yi-ting is a freelance writer based in the UK, focusing on geopolitics and gender-related issues.
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