TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Green Party Taiwan will work to overturn restrictions on surrogacy if elected in January, the party said as it announced policies targeting gender equality on Thursday (Dec. 14).
The policies also include paid family care leave for all, improvements for sex workers, strengthening anti-discrimination laws, and improving mechanisms for reporting sexual harassment.
The party said it will seek to overturn the ban on surrogacy in Taiwan that is imposed on those who are not in a heterosexual relationship and married to their partner. In November, Taiwan’s health ministry said it would amend laws to potentially allow the practice, but has yet to overturn the ban.
Lawyer and Green Party legislative candidate Zoe Lee (李菁琪) told Taiwan News that currently only same sex married couples can use artificial reproduction methods to have children, a situation she called “crazy.” Lee said that single women, and same sex couples can not have children via surrogates, meaning many choose to leave the country to do so.
In a Reuters article published in August, director of a Taipei hospital’s reproduction center Li Yu-ping (李毅評) said overturning the ban was a “very important national security issue.” Meanwhile, demand for egg freezing in Taiwan has surged over the past three years, with women taking the measure in hopes that the law will be changed.
The party also said it will create new paid leave for workers who need to care for family. “In an ageing society, the responsibilities of family care will become greater – a role that is often borne by women,” Green Party candidate for Hsinchu Yu Hsiao-ching (余筱菁) said in a press release.
Yu said that Taiwan’s public sector workers have access to family care leave, but “ordinary workers” do not. “Women also often have to take care of sick children home from school, or need transport to doctors,” she said.
The party is also calling for reforms to the sex work industry. Sex work in Taiwan is currently illegal except for in specified areas that can be established by local governments.
The creation of sex work zones was first allowed in 2011, Lee said that in the following years, none have been established. She also said that creating zones will not solve systemic issues in the sex work industry.
“The sex trade remains underground, and sex workers struggle to survive under the threats of violence, not being paid, and arrest,” Lee said. She said the Green Party’s approach to sex work focuses on decimalization and destigmatization.
The party said Taiwan’s workplace sexual harassment laws can be further improved in the wake of the #MeToo movement that swept Taiwan in 2023. It proposed policy that would see complaints from employees working in businesses with 30 staff or less submitted directly to local labor bureaus, instead of being lodged through the workplace itself.
At-large legislative candidate Huang Jou-chia (黃柔嘉) said that despite established channels for lodging complaints, employees in small businesses may not feel comfortable raising grievances. This is due to the often very close relationships between staff at the large number of small businesses in Taiwan, Huang said.
Abby Wu (吳伊婷), Taiwan’s first female transgender candidate, is also a Green Party candidate, and said the party will improve the country’s anti-discrimination laws. Wu said there are laws in place to address this, but they are incomplete and poorly implemented.
She said the government should implement “comprehensive and effective laws to protect those of different genders, gender identity, and sexual orientations.” Wu said laws also need to be improved to prevent discrimination against Indigenous people, and that all associated laws must be accompanied by education on human rights.
Party Secretary General Joyance Wang (王彥涵) said the party has already announced other policies, including on drug laws and environmental protection. However, she said the 2024 campaign is characterized overall by the goals of “anti-discrimination and stigmatization, and to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves,” which includes the natural environment.
