Two Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators yesterday urged the government to submit bills that would extend the use of assisted reproduction to single women and same-sex female couples, and promote gender equality education.
At a news conference marking the sixth anniversary of the passage of same-sex marriage legislation in Taiwan, DPP Legislator Huang Jie (黃捷) said that with 12,683 same-sex couples having registered marriages over the past six years, enacting the law was only a starting point.
Huang said she hoped that restrictions on transnational same-sex marriages could be eased and the adoption system could be improved, while also advocating amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) that would extend assisted reproduction to single women and same-sex female couples.
Photo: Liao Cheng-hui, Taipei Times
At present, only married heterosexual couples are allowed to pursue assisted reproduction, including artificial insemination, under Taiwanese law.
Huang urged the Cabinet and the Ministry of Health and Welfare to submit amendments that would change the “status quo.”
Doing so would allow more single women and lesbians to benefit and have children while they still can, she said.
She said that her advocacy of amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act would not include surrogacy issues, which have proven to be highly controversial in debates on amending the act.
Much more needed to be done to promote gender equality education, she said.
At the same event, DPP Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) also expressed hope that draft amendments on extending assisted reproduction the ministry previously agreed to would soon be put on the Legislative Yuan’s agenda.
The government’s stance on amending the law has been inconsistent, Taiwan Equality Campaign advocacy and civic engagement project manager Wong Yu-cin (翁鈺清) said.
She cited polls showing that support for lesbians using artificial reproduction dropped from 61.4 percent last year to 57.7 percent more recently, indicating that the public is perplexed by delays in pushing the policy forward.
Taipei has once again made it to the top 100 in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index 2025 report, moving up five places from last year to 60. The annual index, which was published last month, evaluated 1,000 of the most populated metropolises based on five indices — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. New York maintained its top spot this year, placing first in the economics index thanks to the strength of its vibrant financial industry and economic stability. Taipei ranked 263rd in economics, 44th in human capital, 15th in quality of life, 284th for environment and 75th in governance,
Greenpeace yesterday said that it is to appeal a decision last month by the Taipei High Administrative Court to dismiss its 2021 lawsuit against the Ministry of Economic Affairs over “loose” regulations governing major corporate electricity consumers. The climate-related lawsuit — the first of its kind in Taiwan — sought to require the government to enforce higher green energy thresholds on major corporations to reduce emissions in light of climate change and an uptick in extreme weather. The suit, filed by Greenpeace East Asia, the Environmental Jurists Association and four individual plaintiffs, was dismissed on May 8 following four years of litigation. The
A former officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who witnessed the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has warned that Taiwan could face a similar fate if China attempts to unify the country by force. Li Xiaoming (李曉明), who was deployed to Beijing as a junior officer during the crackdown, said Taiwanese people should study the massacre carefully, because it offers a glimpse of what Beijing is willing to do to suppress dissent. “What happened in Tiananmen Square could happen in Taiwan too,” Li told CNA in a May 22 interview, ahead of the massacre’s 36th anniversary. “If Taiwanese students or
The New Taipei City Government would assist relatives of those killed or injured in last month’s car-ramming incident in Sansia District (三峽) to secure compensation, Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said yesterday, two days after the driver died in a hospital. “The city government will do its best to help the relatives of the car crash incident seek compensation,” Hou said. The mayor also said that the city’s Legal Affairs, Education and Social Welfare departments have established a joint mechanism to “provide coordinated assistance” to victims and their families. Three people were killed and 12 injured when a car plowed into schoolchildren and their
RSS