The number of unwanted pregnancies in Taiwan is high and the number of abortions carried out is “beyond imagination,” an obstetrics and gynecology doctor said.
Taipei Medical University Hospital obstetrics and gynecology doctor Chen Ching-hui (陳菁徽) said that according to statistics compiled by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, only 70 percent of married women aged between 20 and 49 practice birth control.
She said that in her outpatient experience, more than 60 percent of married couples plan their first pregnancy, but up to 80 percent did not expect their second.
Chen said that some couples give birth to a second child reluctantly, while 40 percent choose abortion.
The medical establishment estimates that up to 500,000 fetuses are disposed of each year.
Another obstetrics and gynecology doctor, Lin Si-hong (林思宏), said Taiwan has about 200,000 newborns a year, but the number of people taking the RU486 “morning after” pill to prevent conception is about 400,000, indicating that 30 percent of pregnant women opt for giving birth, while the rest choose abortion.
The high unwanted pregnancy rate is related to failure to use condoms, or mistakes in “safe period” calculations, Chen said.
Some women’s lack of initiative in using condoms, as well as some men’s reluctance to use them, also contributes to unwanted pregnancies.
Lin said that Taiwanese should change their concept of abortion, noting that contraceptive devices implanted into women’s wombs do not necessarily make women uncomfortable or their partners unhappy.
Lin said the concept is wrong and that the devices are easy to install without side effects.
Taiwan’s birth rate is one of the lowest in the world.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) earlier this month said that he was overjoyed when he heard that there was a higher-than-expected number of newborns last year.
The number last year was previously estimated at 195,000, but hit 213,000.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS