The morning-after pill could be approved in Japan by the end of the year. But the government is demanding strict conditions for this – which causes discussions.
Tokyo – In Germany, the morning-after pill is now available in pharmacies without a prescription. In Japan on the other hand, approval of the preparation is currently being discussed – also in the There is a heated debate about abortion rights in the United States. At the end of the year, the morning-after pill should be approved in Japan – but it shouldn’t be as easy to get as in this country.
According to the British newspaper The Guardian, women could be forced to show their spouse’s consent to get the morning-after pill. According to Japan’s Maternity Protection Act of 1948, this is also necessary for surgical abortions – with only a few exceptions.
The most important things about the morning-after pill | |
active ingredient | hormone levonorgestrel (LNG) or ulipristal acetate |
revenue | The morning-after pill should be taken as soon as possible. Depending on the preparation, it can be taken 72 or 12 hours after intercourse. |
Costs | Between 16 and 35 euros |
Where to buy the morning-after pill | Without prescription in the pharmacy. Women under the age of 22 can get the drug free of charge from the pharmacy with a prescription. |
(Source: Profamilia) |
The morning-after pill should be no different. “Basically, we believe that the spouse’s consent is necessary even if the abortion is induced by oral medication,” said Yasuhiro Hashimoto of Japan’s health ministry, according to Bloomberg.
Japan wants to allow the morning-after pill: activists are calling for the abolition of the partner’s consent
For years, activists have been calling for the abolition of partner consent for abortions. Above all, they complain that Japan needs so long to approve a drug that has been available in more than 70 countries for a long time – that also shows how strong it is Gender discrimination in Japan is still in everyday life.
“Spousal consent becomes an issue when there are disagreements between the spouses or when the spouse is forcing the wife to give birth against her will,” says Kumi Tsukahara of Action for Safe Abortion Japan. It is also a form of violence to force women to conceive against their will.
A dead baby was found in a park in Japan last year. The baby’s 21-year-old mother told the court that she did not have her partner’s consent and was therefore unable to have an abortion, according to The Guardian. Apparently the father could not be contacted, but the doctors insisted on consent. Even in the case of pregnancies due to rape, some doctors have refused to carry out an abortion – although in such cases no consent is required.
The morning-after pill will likely cost as much as a surgical abortion in Japan
But if the morning-after pill is approved in Japan at the end of the year, it won’t be any easier for women: the drug could cost around 100,000 yen, which is around 700 euros. This is consistent with the cost of an abortion in Japan. That’s why Chiaki Shirai, a professor of humanities and social sciences at Shizuoka University, is calling for “contraception, abortion, pregnancy and childbirth” to be publicly funded.
Mizuho Fukushima, MP for the Social Democratic Party in Japan, also criticized the costs and the partner’s consent. “Women are not the property of men. Their rights, not the man’s, should be protected. Why would a woman need her partner’s approval? It’s her body,” she said in Parliament in May. (Natasha Terjung)
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