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New regulation further restricts legal abortions
Jakarta Globe - August 12, 2014
The regulation on reproductive health, signed with little media attention last Friday by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, stipulates that women who get pregnant as a result of rape may apply for a legal abortion, but only within 40 days of their last period.
An existing article in the 2009 Health Law, however, places no such restriction on when a rape victim may get an abortion. The new rule, critics say, will give rape victims virtually no time to make a clear and informed decision about whether they want to abort the fetus.
"There shouldn't be this 40-day restriction," Masruchah, a member of the National Commission on Violence Against Women, or Komnas HAM, told the Jakarta Globe on Tuesday. "Rape victims in rural areas, for instance, often never find out that they're pregnant" until two or three months later, she added.
Suryono Slamet Iman Santoso, a gynecologist at Jakarta's Abdi Waluyo Hospital and former reproductive health lecturer at the University of Indonesia, notes that most women don't even think about testing for pregnancy until after 40 days from their last period.
"That's when their expected period is typically about two weeks late. So it's only after 40 days that you can make a reasonably accurate determination of whether a woman is pregnant or not," he told the Globe. "I believe there shouldn't be this restriction. It will be hard to implement," he added.
The new regulation also fleshes out the process for determining what constitutes a life-threatening health condition for the mother or fetus, which is another circumstance in which a woman may get an abortion – but restricts this too by requiring that the woman obtain approval from her husband. No such condition is listed in the 2009 Health Law.
Government officials, however, are crowing over what they call a progressive regulation, saying that it places women's health at the fore.
"It takes into consideration every aspect of the health, safety and comfort of the woman, her family and the fetus," Anung Sugihantono, the Health Ministry's director general for maternal and child health, said in Jakarta on Tuesday. "It should also be understood that this regulation does not legalize abortion," he added.
The government regulation will be shored up with a Health Ministry regulation that details the processes and mechanisms for a legal abortion, Anung said.
Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/new-regulation-restricts-legal-abortions/.
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