Analysis: Taiwan's Abortion Laws

Lin Shih-fang of the Awakening Foundation, an NGO focusing on gender equality, speaks to TaiwanPlus about Taiwan's regulations governing abortion.

Transcript

00:00So when is it legal for a woman to get an abortion in Taiwan?

00:30Why is it that a woman needs consent from their husband in order to get an abortion?

01:00This is actually a very discriminatory regulation.

01:03The idea behind the regulation is that once you get married, your body is not yours.

01:11The most important thing is that your family is complete, and your body belongs to your spouse.

01:16So your spouse should have the opportunity or the right to express their opinion on whether you should have an abortion.

01:24But from the perspective of the gender group, we feel that this is a regulation that completely disrespects women's right to self-determination.

01:33Taiwan's Justice Ministry has just rescinded a proposal to increase fines for illegal abortions.

01:39I wonder if you can tell us how widespread illegal abortions are in Taiwan.

01:43From the perspective of the Justice Ministry, from 2014 to this year, there have only been 10 cases of illegal abortions in the local courts.

01:56We can see that there are very few cases of illegal abortions in Taiwan.