Abortion and economic reasons

In 1974, the Eugenic Protection Law Revision Bill finally failed to pass the Diet. The clause for selective abortion did not added to the law. A group of physicians in abortion clinics have continuously demanded a clause for selective abortion, but every time they insisted it women and disabled people acted against them. Hence, the Japanese law has not had such a clause up to the present. However, we should understand that when a woman has a disabled fetus she is allowed to abort it if she claims “economic reasons.” The debated issue was whether the clause should be added to the law; in other words, it was a debate over the symbolic meaning of the clause when added to the law. (Eugenic Protection Law was revised in 1996, and its name was changed to Maternal Protection Law.)

>> To read more please visit:

Disability Movement and Inner Eugenic Thought
(2002)
(You can read the entire text)