Women need autonomy, not control

The Justice Department has dramatically set back women’s rights by proposing to increase the maximum penalty for women who perform illegal abortions by more than 26 times. Although it has since withdrawn the proposal, its launch reveals a bleak reality: Despite Taiwan’s pride in protecting individual freedoms, it falls woefully short of protecting the reproductive rights of women, who make up half of the total population.

At the heart of the paradox lies a solution: comprehensive legislation that decriminalizes abortion and gives women the power to decide what’s best for their bodies without requiring anyone else’s consent.

Women’s reproductive freedoms continue to be collateral damage of the outdated legal system that criminalized women for terminating a pregnancy. Almost eighty years after the end of Japanese colonial rule, it is surprising that little has changed when it comes to women’s reproductive autonomy. Women are still denied control over their own bodies, and access to abortion remains subject to the Criminal Code.

The Awakening Foundation, a nonprofit women’s rights group, wrote in a statement published Nov. 1 that the government found it necessary to assert control over women’s reproductive autonomy and went so far as to impose sanctions against those who wanted to have a say over their own bodies.

In fact, existing laws are framed in such 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 help them from prosecution in certain cases, including rape, fetal abnormalities, or threats to the mother’s mental or physical health.

However, the law does not address the issue that women are still oppressed due to the entrenched patriarchy in Taiwan’s legislative system. According to the provisions of the law, the consent of the spouse is mandatory for married women to have an abortion; This requirement serves no purpose other than reinforcing state-sanctioned misogyny.

This outdated law allows abusive husbands to exploit their rights, using it as leverage to blackmail or retaliate against women seeking abortions. Vulnerable women face a brutal dilemma: terminate their pregnancies against their will or resort to unsafe underground medical practices at risk of prosecution.

With the looming threat of prosecution, how can we ensure that women make informed decisions about their bodies that are in their best interests, not the interests of others?

This reactionary policy puts Taiwan at odds with much of the world. A UN report published in 2017 noted that only 14 percent of countries require spousal consent, underscoring Taiwan’s outdated attitude towards women’s reproductive health.

Additionally, the government does not hesitate to limit women’s choices over their own bodies. Before the Genetic Health Law came into force in 1984, the Criminal Code prohibited women from terminating a pregnancy, even in cases of sexual assault.

Lin Chih-chieh (林志潔), a professor specializing in gender laws at the National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, said in his research in 2009 that enacting the Genetic Health Law was never about protecting women’s reproductive freedom, but about granting reproductive freedom to the government. 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 harmed the country’s birth rate. Despite growing research showing that young people are postponing parenthood because they can’t afford it, women, as always, are expected to shoulder the responsibility of easing society’s panic over Taiwan’s demographic crisis.

Rather than wasting taxpayers’ hard-earned money prosecuting women who terminate unwanted pregnancies, the government can do better by supporting expectant parents to tackle real problems like unaffordable housing, stagnant wages, rising costs of living, workplace discrimination and gender inequality. .

Laws that reduce women to little more than womb bearers will never encourage them to have more children; real choice and affordable child care will encourage this.

As a result, we should not leave the door open to those who want to dominate women by holding their bodies hostage. The struggle for reproductive justice is not unique to women. We do not have the luxury of separating women’s bodily autonomy from broader economic and social challenges. Decriminalizing abortion and restoring women’s reproductive rights is the first step in building an egalitarian society that welcomes and empowers potential parents rather than alienating them.

Lo Yi-ting is a freelance writer based in the United Kingdom, focusing on geopolitical and gender-related issues.