News
Abortion penalty proposal withdrawn following opposition
The Ministry of Justice has withdrawn a proposal to raise the financial penalties for offenses related to illegal abortions following a backlash from women's rights groups.
The ministry said it collected "opinions from all walks of life" since it announced the proposal last week and found that there is "currently no consensus" on the existence or abolition of abortion-related offenses.
Prior to that announcement, the justice ministry had been touting its proposal as being aimed at "protecting the bodily autonomy of pregnant women and the right to life of fetuses" and stressing that it was in line with the requirements of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
However, women's rights groups had been expressing their concerns that the proposed changes to Articles 288, 290 and 292 of the penal code represented a "setback" for women's rights. Taiwan's Women's Link accused the justice ministry of failing to consider abolishing the crime of abortion in the criminal code, but instead only seeking to increase the fines.
