Estimates that thousands of female fetuses are aborted each year in Taiwan have led to calls for health agencies to better regulate measures aimed at closing the nation’s gender gap, which is among the most skewed in the world.
Providing better subsidies, education and care for pregnant women should also be a priority, lawmakers from both parties said yesterday, with the newest government statistics showing that 1.09 males were born for every one female last year.
In most countries, a male--female ratio of 1.06 to one at birth would be the norm. The disparity led Bureau of Health Promotion -Director--General Chiou Shu-ti (邱淑媞) to suggest on Saturday that more than 3,000 female fetuses were selectively aborted last year alone.
“The gender imbalance is deeply troubling for Taiwanese society,” Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) said, adding that Taiwan only needed to look at China to see the effect of long-term imbalances. “The government needs to come up with a new policy to deal with the issue.”
KMT Legislator Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛), who heads the Modern Women’s Foundation, said the problem was deeply rooted in beliefs that prize males over females.
As a result, government agencies need to take a two-pronged approach, Pan said.
“Starting from the basics, we need to start by reinforcing ideas of gender equality while [better] regulating hospitals that are engaging in the illegal actions,” Pan said. “We need to use every aspect of the law to ensure a male-female balance.”
While there is no talk yet of introducing new legislation, lawmakers from both parties have advised that the government prioritize the problem of gender imbalance — similar to how the dwindling birth rate became a national security issue earlier this year.
“The government needs to play a leadership role and correct some of society’s values,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said, adding that on the topic of medical principles, “both health and interior [agencies] need to show a bit more [vigor].”
The Department of Health (DOH) said it would step up investigation of doctors and medical institutions that are suspected of engaging in gender-biased sex selection.
While most mothers learn the gender of their baby by looking at an ultrasound about 19 or 20 weeks into their pregnancy, those who are considering aborting female fetuses can learn the sex of the baby as early as six to eight weeks into the pregnancy by sending blood samples to private testing facilities.
“Even though the government has continuously promoted the idea that boys and girls are equally good, the DOH has still observed a high male-to-female newborn ratio of 1.09,” Chiou said.
Chiou said the gender imbalance was most likely caused by the belief held by some that males will carry on the family name.
Many families that visit clinics that “guarantee boys” say that the father must shoulder the entire burden of producing heirs to the family, Chiou said.
The bureau also found that parents’ gender preferences were especially obvious after the birth of their first child. For most families, if the mother first gives birth to a boy, then the sex of the second baby is not as big a concern, while if the mother first gives birth to a girl, then families that believe in males carrying on the family name are often desperate for a boy. As a result, many families turn to gender selection techniques such as aborting female fetuses, creating an imbalance between the male and female newborn ratio.
To address the problem of medical institutions that illegally and unethically “guarantee boys” to parents who do not want a female baby, the department said it had formed a task force involving various bureaus to control the situation and investigate medical institutions with suspicious male-to-female infant ratios.
Bureau of Health statistics show the sex ratio imbalance has been a long-running problem in Taiwan, remaining consistently at almost 11 males for every 10 females for most of the past decade, even as polls show only a small number of Taiwanese prefer boys over girls.
In 2009, the sex ratio at birth dipped to 108.5 to 100, with males outnumbering females 100,155 to 92,310, the lowest in recent record, although it shot back up to 110.12 to 100 in the first half of last year, a development that experts have watched with some concern.
The information comes despite a poll conducted by the department earlier this year that suggested that the vast majority of people do not prefer boys over girls and support government regulation over the issue.
About 91 percent of those surveyed said that they supported a government policy imposing fines on sex selection. However, more than one in four of those surveyed said that they would also insist on eventually having a boy, suggesting that there were still significant numbers that favored males.
Taiwan’s sex ratio imbalance is one of the highest in East Asia, behind only South Korea and China, UN data showed. The Bureau of Health banned sex selection in 2000 and last year announced that it would be stepping up fines and checks for alleged hospital assisted cases.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and