Criminalization of Abortion in Late Qing and Republican China*

The offence of abortion was a Western legal disposition introduced into late Qing China in the 1900s and it remained in effect during the Republican period. In Imperial China, abortion did not constitute a criminal offence, and foetal life was generally considered inferior to human life. The widespread humanization of the foetus in early twentieth-century China was closely intertwined with the nationalist ideology that exhorted women to reproduce for the nation. In this narrative, the foetus was valued as a future citizen, and abortion came to be seen as a demographic calamity for the nation. Abortion was also condemned by conservatives who depreciated it as a scandalous act mostly attempted by women engaged in 'illicit' sexual relationships. Although the 1935 Criminal Code decriminalized therapeutic abortion, it was still illegal to terminate a pregnancy resulting from rape. In this regard, the vision of legal Orientalism that portrays Chinese law as the inferior other to modern Western law is problematic, as certain aspects of Chinese legal tradition may provide a more appropriate protection of personal choices.