Criminalization of Abortion in Late Qing and Republican China.

This article examines the criminalization of abortion in late Qing and Republican China, highlighting that abortion was not traditionally a criminal offense in Imperial China, where foetal life was considered legally and socially inferior to human life. The ban on abortion was introduced in the early 1900s as part of legal reforms influenced by Western and Japanese laws, motivated by nationalist and conservative ideologies that humanized the foetus as a future citizen essential to national survival. Despite legal prohibitions, abortion remained common and often unsafe, with courts showing leniency toward offenders due to social realities. The article argues that this legal modernization, driven by "legal Orientalism," imposed foreign norms that restricted women's reproductive choices more than traditional Chinese law had, challenging the notion that Western-style legal reforms necessarily expanded personal freedoms.