Abortion in Taiwan Becoming More Acceptable as Country Becomes Increasingly Liberal

By Editing Room
Pregnant Woman
A woman holds her stomach at the last stages of her pregnancy in Bordeaux April 28, 2010.  Reuters/Regis Duvignau

According to estimates by the Taiwan medical society, there were 160,000 new born babies in Taiwan last year and there could be as many as 500,000 cases of abortions each year, which tripled the number of newborns.

The Chinese Christian Tribune reports that in order to cooperate with the Gender Equality Committee of the Department of the Executive, the Taiwan government considered changing the Eugenic Health Law last year. In the future, "pregnant women have the absolute freedom to have an abortion at will without reasons; wives can have an abortion without the consent of their husbands; underage girls can have an abortion without telling their parents."

Father Louis Aldrich S.J of Fu Jen Faculty of Theology of St. Robert Bellarmine Human Life Ethics Center expresses that any form of abortion is not right, arguing that if abortion is allowed due to a fetus' abnormal development, then a sick one-year old child can also be killed.

He points out that the Bible teaches us not to kill innocent people. While 85% of Taiwan population regard a fetus as a person, the country is becoming more liberal and its ethical foundation is getting weaker. Therefore, the existing laws need to be enforced and should not be modified at will.

In 1973, abortion was legalized in the United States of America. Father Aldrich listened to a talk at a school and watched a clip about the consequence of abortion. He saw a fetus being "killed" inside the mother's womb and he was very shocked. He considered that despising life.

Qi Ming, a researcher at Human Life Ethics Center, also opposes abortion based on his religious view. He believes that every life is created by God and a fetus is a living human when it is still in the mother's womb. Therefore, abortion no doubt is an act of taking a person's life.

Qi mentions that if underage girls do not need to inform their parents before having an abortion, then it is equivalent to damaging the guardian system, as well as destroying parent-child relationship and demolishing family values. If a girl got pregnant from rape, her parents should understand the truth and protect their daughter.

Regarding wives having an abortion without the husbands' consent, Qi is afraid that if a wife was angry due to an argument and had an abortion, it would damage the trust between the couple and the value of their relationship.

Father Aldrich said what they can do is to let people know the truth about abortion through education and promotional activities.

Human Life Ethics Center puts together DVDs to present the process of doctors performing abortion procedures on women. They give out these DVDs to schools, social organizations, individuals, etc. hoping that they could persuade women to give up the idea of abortion by seeing a "real person" being killed in life. 

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