Unot advanced, yes, but with conditions. The abortion pill, which allows a woman to abort without surgery, should be authorized by the end of the year in Japan. Problem: its use by Japanese women will be subject to the goodwill of their spouse, reports The Guardian, Tuesday, May 31. A method denounced by some activists, who see it as an intolerable attack on the reproductive rights of women. Local associations are therefore calling on the Japanese government to get rid of this condition of access to voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG).
“‘Spousal consent’ becomes an issue when there is a disagreement with the spouse, or the spouse forces the woman to give birth against her will,” says Kumi Tsukahara, a member of Action for Safe Abortion Japan. . “To be forced to pursue an unwanted pregnancy is violence and a form of torture,” she said.
Pill not reimbursed
“Women are not the property of men,” asserts Mizuho Fukushima, opposition MP, member of the Social Democratic Party. Additional obstacle, this treatment would not be covered by health insurance and would be charged 100,000 yen, or about 730 euros. Which would make it inaccessible for the most precarious women. The country of the Rising Sun is renowned for its restrictive policies towards the various means of contraception. Japan notably waited forty years to authorize oral contraceptives and is one of the eleven countries in the world where the agreement of a third party is necessary to have recourse to a surgical abortion.
