Abortion Policy during the Post-Suharto Period in Indonesia

After the fall of Suharto dictatorial regime in 1998, the social, juridical, public policies, and so forth are redefined and improved to cater for individual and groups rights for Indonesian people. Since then, the efforts of the successive governments to create new laws for the sake of democracy did also consider some rights and position of women in the society. Although there were different amendments of laws in respect to human rights and democracy in recent years, the law on abortion has never changed. This article explores the politics of abortion during the Reformasi era, from 1998 to 2004. It focuses on the political, economic and demographic factors of the country. To illuminate the difference of the previous Soharto's regime, the politics of family planning during that era is described. The analysis also looks at the dynamic of the State's politics related to the regulation of women sexuality and also the social policy that limits this practice. The changes of regimes from the ideological perspective open the possibility to improve the Suhartoist policy related to sexuality. However, the recent reality shows that the law related to women's freedom remains difficult to apply. Whether this difficulty is temporal remains to be seen in the future in a sense where; will the society be more democratic or secular. The further question is to understand to what extent women have the possibilities to be heard related to their own voice.