Illegal abortion proposal shelved after opposition from women's groups

Taipei, Nov. 5 (CNA) Taiwan's Ministry of Justice (MOJ) on Tuesday withdrew its proposal to raise the financial penalties for offenses relating to illegal abortions after women's groups voiced opposition.

The MOJ said on Tuesday it had collected "opinions from all walks of life" since issuing the proposal last week and said that there "currently isn't a consensus" on the existence or abolition of abortion-related offenses.

The move came after women's rights groups -- including Taiwan Women's Link and the Awakening Foundation -- separately expressed their concerns that the MOJ's proposed changes to Articles 288, 290 and 292 of the penal code represented a "setback" for women's rights.

Abortion is legal in Taiwan under the Genetic Health Act that has been in force since 1985, with legal abortions -- i.e., termination of pregnancy conducted by a qualified doctor up to the 24th week of pregnancy -- exceeding 100,000 cases every year in recent years by oral medication alone, according to Taiwan's Food and Drug Administration.

The MOJ's proposal issued on Tuesday instead mostly related to raising the financial penalties for illegal abortions, which it deemed "no longer in accordance with what is appropriate."

Under current legislation, "a pregnant woman who by taking drugs or by other means causes her abortion" -- referring to a woman who aborts a fetus herself -- can be sentenced to up to six months or be fined up to NT$3,000 (US$94). However, last week, the MOJ proposed raising the maximum fine for this offense to NT$80,000 -- a more than 26-fold increase.

The MOJ also proposed that the financial penalty for those found guilty of carrying out an abortion of a woman's fetus "for the purpose of gain" be raised from NT$15,000 to NT$500,000, while leaving unchanged the possible jail sentence for this offense at six months to five years.

As for the offense of causing an abortion that results in "aggravated injury," the MOJ sought to raise the currently-stipulated penalty of NT$15,000 to NT$1,000,000 while keeping the possible prison sentence of one to seven years unchanged.

The MOJ also wanted the fine for causing an abortion that results in a woman's death to increase 133-fold from the current NT$15,000 to NT$2,000,000, a crime that can also lead to imprisonment of between three and ten years.

In addition, the MOJ also suggested completely removing Article 292, which stipulates the crime of a person who "publicly advertises a method or thing to be used for abortion or who offers the services of himself or another for abortion," from the statute books, citing the fact that no one has been indicted for this crime in the past ten years.

In accordance with Taiwan's legal system, the MOJ's proposed amendments would have needed to have been approved by the Legislature in order to become law.

The MOJ said last week that the proposed changes aimed to "protect the bodily autonomy of pregnant women and the right to life of fetuses" in line with the requirements of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

However, Taiwan Women's Link said on Friday that "the Ministry of Justice actually misinterpreted and violated the spirit of CEDAW" since the 2022 CEDAW National Report published in 2022 recommended decriminalizing abortion for pregnant girls and women.

"The offenses of abortion only punish women who have an unwanted pregnancy and require an abortion but do not punish men who have sexual relations with the woman and cause the unwanted pregnancy," Taiwan's Women's Link wrote on Facebook. "This is clearly differential treatment of women."

"The Ministry of Justice did not consider abolishing the crime of abortion in the criminal code, but instead [seeks to] increase the fines, which is a step back," the women's rights group said.

"The Ministry of Justice ignores gender equality!" wrote the Awakening Foundation, a women's rights civil society group, on Facebook on Monday. "The crime of abortion in criminal law should have been abolished long ago!"

The two women's groups held a press conference on Tuesday morning to publicize their opposition to the MOJ's proposals, during which they raised banners with slogans including "Abolish abortion-related crimes, give me reproductive autonomy" and "My body, my choice."

Later the same day, the ministry withdrew its proposal.