Policy Analysis of Abortion in Indonesia: The Dynamic of State Power, Human Need and Women's Right

• Published in: IDS bulletin (Brighton. 1984) 2008-07, Vol.39 (3), p.62-71
• Main Author: Surjadjaja, Claudia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abortion; Decriminalization; Health care; Human rights; Indonesia; Islam; Legal systems; Legalization; Legislation; Mortality; Policy analysis; Political power; Power; Pregnancy; Punishment; Social values; State-society relations; Unwanted pregnancy; Women; Women's rights
• ISSN: 0265-5012; 1759-5436
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1759-5436.2008.tb00463.x

The women of Indonesia with unwanted pregnancies face stark choices: giving birth & facing social ostracism, loss of family support network, & even harsh criminal punishment; or an abortion from a clandestine provider, risking serious injury or death. The complexity of Indonesian life is multifaceted. Ruled by multiple formal & traditional legal systems, it remains embroiled in an ongoing struggle to establish its identity during the process of democratisation & a strengthening of Islamic values in a time when the vast majority of its population, as Muslims, feel under attack by the West's 'war on terror', The campaign to bring in a new health bill including the decriminalisation of abortion has been challenged, facing lack of consensus that high maternal mortality rates are primarily caused by clandestine abortions, varying reasons behind reforms to the health law, & lack of political will to see through the change because of difference of opinion. The powerful combination of liberal & secular values that is manifest in Indonesian people is complex, but also holds hope that change remains possible. Adapted from the source document.