News Japan to require partner's consent for abortion pill

Campaigners are calling on health authorities to ditch the rule requiring women to gain written consent from their partners before a doctor can prescribe a course of abortion drugs. Kumi Tsukahara, a founding member of Action for Safe Abortion Japan, said: "'Spousal consent' becomes an issue is when there is a disagreement with the spouse or the spouse is forcing the woman to give birth against her will. "For women, being forced into a pregnancy they do not want is violence and a form of torture." The policy can have tragic consequences. Last year, a 21-year-old woman was arrested after the body of her newborn baby was found in a park in central Japan. The woman, who was given a suspended prison sentence, told the court she was unable to end her pregnancy because she could not gain written consent from her partner. Doctors had insisted that she obtain consent, even though the health ministry later said hers was one of the few cases in which it was not required because the father could not be contacted. Japanese media have also reported cases in which doctors refused to approve an abortion for women who had been sexually assaulted, forcing health ministry officials to write to the Japan Medical Association to clarify that consent is not required in rape cases.

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