Indonesia Expands Legal Abortion Access to First Trimester in Cases of Rape or Medical Emergency

Women walking in the central yard in front of a mosque in Medan, Indonesia, on Jan. 16, 2024.

Indonesia will now permit women to undergo abortions up to 14 weeks of gestation in certain circumstances, a significant expansion from the previous six-week limit. This change is part of a broader effort to address Indonesia’s alarmingly high maternal mortality rate, one of the highest in Southeast Asia.

The new law, signed by President Joko Widodo this week, comes after persistent calls from women’s rights advocates and healthcare professionals who argued that the previous legislation was overly restrictive, particularly in cases of rape, leading to the imprisonment of women and girls who sought abortions beyond the six-week limit.

Abortion remains illegal in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, with exceptions for medical emergencies and instances of rape. Despite these exceptions, a 2018 study conducted in Java, home to nearly 60% of Indonesia’s population, estimated that abortions occur annually.

Calls to decriminalize abortion in Indonesia gained momentum following the case of a teenager who was raped by her brother and sentenced to six months in prison in 2018 for terminating her pregnancy. She was later acquitted by a higher court after a public outcry.

The new regulation is part of a larger initiative to improve women’s reproductive health, which includes increased private funding for public hospitals, a strategy to boost the doctor supply by encouraging foreign-trained doctors to work in Indonesia, and reduced tuition fees for medical students.

Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, currently has six doctors per 10,000 people, compared to 25 in Singapore and nine in Thailand, according to World Bank data.

With a maternal mortality ratio of 189 deaths per 100,000 live births, Indonesia has a significantly higher rate than other countries in the region, according to the United Nations Population Fund. This high rate results in an estimated $11.5 billion annual expenditure on medical treatment overseas for Indonesians.

Indonesia is striving to enhance healthcare services for its population of 278 million. The shortage of doctors in remote areas and lengthy waiting times for treatments contribute to the country’s life expectancy, which stood at 71.3 years in 2019. This figure lags behind the 76.3-year average for upper middle-income countries.