"Support Service for Rape Victims with Forced Pregnancies and Human Rights for Them Beyond the Confrontation between Birth and Abortion"
KOYAKE Risa
last update: 20151224
Support Service for Rape Victims with Forced Pregnancies and Human Rights for Them Beyond the Confrontation between Birth and Abortion
KOYAKE Risa
Abstract:
The purpose of this study is to clarify the situation of rape victims with forced pregnancies in Japan. Rape
victims with unwanted pregnancies must face the forced decision of having a child. However, that forced
decision is usually too difficult for rape victims to decide.
Therefore, this paper inquires into reproductive freedom for rape victims.
Japan has few support systems for rape victims, whether they become pregnant or not. Thus, victim
women must face, by themselves, the difficulty of realizing reproductive choice.
Most people think a rape victim with a forced pregnancy strongly wishes to have an abortion. But, in an
interview in 2003 at a non-profit organization promoting adoption, a staff member said that a few rape victims
give birth to promote adoption. So, we may say that women do not necessarily hope to have abortions.
Keywords: forced pregnancies by rape, reproductive choice, an interview with a member of a non-profit organization promoting adoption
REV: 20151224