DESTINY OF FETUSES WITH DISABILITIES
by Yukiko Oka Nakanishi
President, Asia Disability Institute

　Abortion in Japan is allowed only for health and economic reasons according to the newly enacted Maternal Protection Law. The former Eugenic Protection Law was enacted in 1948 to be modeled after the strict family rules adopted by the Nazi/Fascist regimes in order to perfect the race. Since it stated to aim at the protection of the life and the health of the mother, abortion due to genetic reasons was justified. There were cases wherein female residents with disabilities in institutions had their wombs surgically removed against their will.
　
　The government finally admitted that the law was based on the eugenic concept and thus became open to the idea of reviewing it. In 1996 the DPI-Japan Disabled Women's Network together with other NGOs organized a workshop during the UN Women's Conference at in Beijing. The speakers with disabilities from Japan expressed concerns against the Eugenic Protection Law. Soon after that, in June, it was finally revised and given a new name, "Maternal Protection Law". It is most welcome that the prevention of the birth of so called "inferior offspring" is not recognized any more.

　However, the Japan Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (JAOG) decided on 28 March 1999 to allow abortions in cases of multiple pregnancy and of fetuses having serious diseases or deformities. Groups protecting the rights of disabled people, especially those for and of people with muscular dystrophy, quickly responded to criticize the decision. The doctors even plan to call for amending the law to enable them to conduct abortions in such cases, by inserting into law a clause allowing such abortions .

　But the acknowledgment of the abortions is a step back to the idea of the former Eugenic Protection Law, which was regarded as discriminative against people with disabilities. It will reenforce a still-existing idea that babies with disabilities should not be born. Doctors alone cannot make a decision. Some volunteer groups already began to help pregnant mothers who easily resorted to abortions when they had wrong ideas about disability.

(31/9/1999)