Proposed law would allow Taiwanese women to get abortion without spouses' approval

擬修法允許台灣女性墮胎無須配偶同意

7,427 Taiwanese back proposed amendment to allow married women to seek abortion without spousal consent


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's Health Promotion Administration (HPA) on Wednesday (Dec. 9) announced that it will propose the elimination of a law that requires women to receive permission from their spouse to have an abortion.

Article 9 of the Genetic Health Act (優生保健法) states that if a married woman wishes to undergo an abortion, she must first receive consent from her spouse. However, a petition to rescind the law on the Public Policy Proposal Platform received 7,441 signatures, exceeding the minimum number of 5,000 needed to require a government department to issue a response.

On Wednesday, HPA Deputy Director-General Wu Chao-chun (吳昭軍) announced that in order to comply with the UN's Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and after consulting with various groups in the community, the department is planning to amend the Genetic Health Act to meet the expectations of the public and achieves the greatest consensus, reported CNA. Wu said more discussions will be held internally and a draft of the new legislation will be announced in March 2021.

Some who signed the petition pointed out that since pregnancy affects an individual woman's body, she should be granted the power to terminate the pregnancy. They argued that there should be no difference whether or not a woman is married. However, those opposed to changing the law argue that it is a matter that affects both members of a married couple and that both parties should decide whether or not to go through with the pregnancy.

From the standpoint of the medical association, Huang Min-chao (黃閔照), chairman of the Taiwan Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology, supports the removal of spouse consent, reported UDN. Although some people think that the husband provides sperm and has the right to claim embryos, pregnancy actually has a greater impact on women's health, said Huang.

Huang said that among the countries in the world where abortion is legal, fewer than 10 explicitly require spousal consent.

Lin Hsiu-i (林秀怡), director of the Development Department of the Awakening Foundation, said that there have been reports of women in the midst of divorce negotiations who wish to terminate their pregnancy, but the husband does not agree to it, using the current abortion law as a leveraging strategy. She said that in some cases the husband will threaten to report her if she has the abortion and does not agree to his terms.

In response to the proposed amendment, Lin welcomed it as an important development in women’s physical autonomy. She said that as the law currently stands, the consent requirement places more decision-making power in the hands of the spouse, rather than the woman.