Introduction
Currently, more and more people are concerned about the issue of the plummeting birth rate all over the world. Some people consider the shrinking birth rate is good for the overpopulated land while other worry about the consequences brought by the low birth rate. Certainly, the decline of the birthrate is a problem that many developed and developing countries encounter. Many western European countries and Asian countries such as Germany, Japan and Taiwan, are facing a dropping birthrate. In an overpopulated society nowadays, a steadily declining birthrate can not only reduce the environmental burdens but also make the resources better distributed. However, what worries many advanced countries is that the birthrate is dropping too fast. As one of the industrialized and urbanized countries; unexpectedly, Taiwan has one of the lowest birth rates in the world. According to the Population Reference Bureau’s 2013 annual report, Taiwan has a birth rate of 1.3 per couple now; in other words, it has fallen below one baby born per woman. Statistics reveal that the average woman must have 2.1 children to keep the population stable, especially in developed countries. Experts even estimated that as soon as 2017, there will be negative population growth in Taiwan, which means that the number of people who die will outgrow the number of people who are born, and the population gradually decreases. Such low birthrates can cause many problems such as the increase of the aging population, shrinking labor force, and an insufficient enrollment at schools. Yaung Chih-liang, Taiwan's Health Minister, warned that both a labor shortage and unaffordable health costs for the elder could happen if the decline of birth rate is not halted. In the economy, the decreasing population would lead to the decline of productivity and consumption power. In the long term, a dropping birthrate lowers the economic strength of a country, as well. Nowadays, Taiwan has become an aging society in which the working population carries heavier burdens in order to provide for the olds than in the past. For instance, in the old times, people usually had more than two siblings, and they could take care of seniors in the family together. In today’s society; by contrast, most families have only one or two kids, which means they’ll have to carry more responsibility providing for their elders. Therefore, we should take Taiwan’s low birth rate more seriously, and contemplate how to deal with this terrible problem. There are three key concepts contribute to the low birth rate which categories into infertility and abortion, feminism, and social consequences.
Infertility
There are many factors constituting to the low fertility rate. As we all know, the main reason is financial pressure. However, for other parents, the problem is due solely to infertility. The infertility rate in Taiwan has increased in recent years. According to the statistics from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, one in ten couples was infertile five years ago; however, this rate has risen to one in eight. The fertility rate is believed that is related to the food scandal in Taiwan recently. For example, plasticizer was added to many starch products such as tapioca balls in bubble tea. Bisphenol-A (BPA), another kind of plasticizer used in some baby bottles and water bottles, as well the linings of food and beverage cans, has been found to cause male infertility:
A new study of Chinese factory workers suggests that very high levels of BPA exposure may decrease sperm count and contribute to other sperm-related problems in men (Gardner).
There are more researches about plasticizer showing that this chemical leads to infertility. Endocrine disruptor substances which interfere with natural hormones in the body that are responsible for development, behavior, fertility, and maintenance of homeostasis are found in many household and industrial products (Environ Health Perspect). Now, most people are aware that in their everyday life they are frequently coming contact with high level of toxic substances which may cause infertility. However, it is difficult to avoid this situation.
Abortion
Some people have no ability to bear children, but some just give up having pregnancy. There is another factor that is related to the birth rate – abortion:
For every pregnancy leading to a Taiwanese woman giving birth, a remarkable three are estimated by a Taiwan pediatrician to have been aborted, a figure that others believe isn’t too far from reality (Taiwan’s Astonishing Abortion Rate).
According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, 31.2% of wives between the ages of 20 and 40 had the experience of abortion, and 11.4% even more than once. In fact, the abortion rate may be even higher because most abortions are carried out with teens, who are not included in the survey. The main reason for the high abortion rate, even higher than in France or other sexually liberal countries, is the lack of sexual education, which results from conservative attitudes in Taiwan. Teens are more sexually open due to the mass media nowadays, but the lack of sexual knowledge results in adolescents’ pregnancy. Most Taiwanese parents feel embarrassed when talking about sex, so they would rather not mention it. Teens know how to have sex, but they have no idea about how to prevent a pregnancy. When they get pregnant, there is no doubt that they will choose to have abortion because they don’t have the ability to take care of a baby. Social demographers commonly conclude that there are around 200,000 abortions in Taiwan annually. The lack of sexual knowledge helps to raise the abortion rate.
Feminism
The factors mentioned above can be scaled by investigations, however, the change of people’s ideology and the social values are factors under the surface. One of the biggest causes of low birthrate is the rise of feminism. In the old patriarchy society women are considered inferior to men. For a long period of time, women have been living under the domination of men. They usually don’t have their own careers or the ability to control their own lives. What’s more, women’s positions in marriages are often just tools of procreation. Their world was so small since they had to devote themselves to the family and family only.
Nowadays, women enjoy a rather freer and fairer lifestyle. They own their personal property and have the right to work. A lot of women have outstanding performances in their working fields, even better than some men. Gender equality is really a hard-won achievement; women nowadays can do a lot more than the women before. And for this reason, it’s hard to ask a woman to go back to a full-time housewife like in before. Women no longer hurry to marriage after graduation since there are so many other options in life. More and more women have the tendency of late marriage. And even if they get marry, they don’t necessarily have children since some employers think pregnant employees are troublesome and thus will dismiss them from the jobs. Taking care of children is a lot of effort and can affect one’s career. To some women, the accomplishments they gain from work outweigh the fulfillments they get from being a mom. And that is how the rise of feminism affects the birthrates.
Social consequences
On the one hand, equality between the sexes has made tremendous changes to the current situation in Taiwan nowadays. In the past, Taiwanese women were not allowed to pursue the achievement of academic studies. Instead, those women were forced to stay at home, take care of the children and parents-in-law and do all the house chores. In such the traditional rural lifestyle, having four or five children seemed to be normal for people during that time. On the other hand, in contrast to twenty years ago, Taiwan’s women now have more access to university education. According to the studies
conducted by Women’s Federation for World Peace-Taiwan, at least one-third of working women in Taiwan are highly well-educated, having earned a bachelor degree or high academic credentials and become motivated in their careers. Once these women reach a certain academic level, they are reluctant to sacrifice themselves to marriage, let alone having the children. Afraid of losing their job, the majority of work-oriented women are not willing to take time out to have a child.
Adoption
In order to stable the birth rate, adoption would be a part of strategies. Infertility is commonly considered as a disease, so people with infertility rely on assisted reproductive technology. However, this technique is too expensive for most people. And in most cases of teenagers’ pregnancy, teens don’t know what to do except aborting the child. Since there are many foundations for children supporting adoption, encouraging pregnant teens to give birth and promoting the benefits of adoption may help to raise the birth rate. If teens are unable to raise children, they can leave their children at orphanages so that infertile couples can adopt them.
However, in most people’s point of view, adoption is more complicated. Most infertile couples take assisted reproductive technology rather adoption as consideration, even the money they would spend on this technique is far more than the later. Or if they do adopt children, it is difficult for most parents to treat those kids as their own children. Moreover, teenagers’ pregnancy is not encouraged at all. This would only be considered as irresponsible sexual behavior. The change of this social value would be the biggest issue if adoption is a part of strategies. Stereotype is hard to be changed. How to put this into practice still needs to be thoroughly planned. Adopting is not as easy as people think, but at least it would save some lives if our government and some foundations for children assist teens to take care of their babies.
Different policies
Also, many countries have come up with family policies. There are different ways to encourage married couples to have more kids, providing them economic support is one. In France, the government offers allowances and pays for the prenatal examination fees for women during pregnancy. Also, it’s very important to guarantee the work rights for the employed women. Take Sweden for example, the Swedish people think highly of gender equality, it is of great importance that men and women share the equal rights in working fields. As a result, the Swedish government makes it compulsory that both moms and dads should have at least 60 days of the parental paid leave after the baby was born. This policy not only encourages fathers to stay at home taking care of the baby, but also in some degree eliminates the employer’s reluctance to hire women employees since both men and women employees are going to ask for parental leaves.
Our government is working on the family policy, and local agencies for children are also improving the adoption system. The government had pursued several policies to promote childbirth. For instance they’ve come up with publicity campaigns and slogans, lowered the taxation of spouses to lighten the burden of raising children and to provide nursery allowances. Currently in Taiwan, we don’t give parents childbirth allowances, which is a benefit paid upon the birth of each child. We focus on the social welfare measures related to children care. The welfare measure planned by the Ministry of the Interior includes providing parenting educations, nursery allowances and some medical care.
Conclusion
Family planning always takes time to show its effect. However, despite the efforts the government have made, there are reasons to believe that these policies will fail to reach their goal. For example, our fertility rate hasn’t risen significantly since the implementation of the policy except in 2012. The superstition that the year of the dragon is the best time to bear a child helped boost the birth rate. Yet in 2013, the birth rate dropped almost as low as in 2011. Which shows that people in Taiwan are still somehow reluctant to have children.
We all agree that there are still many things that need to be done in order to build a friendly environment for married couples to have children. For instance, gender equality should be taken more seriously in the working field, women shouldn’t be mistreated because of their ability to bring new life to the world, and companies that discriminate against women should be penalized. If only our government stop drawing up nearsighted policies and start to take the responsibility to make Taiwan a better place for people naturally feel like having children. Taiwan really has the potential, considering our natural advantages and relatively harmonious society comparing to many other country, to be a comfortable place for parents and their babies. Hope there will be a day that low birthrate no longer is a problem that bothers us.
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Work Cited
Gardner, Amanda.” Study: BPA May Reduce Sperm Count.” Health.com. October 28, 2010. <http://news.health.com/2010/10/28/bpa-sperm-count/>.
" Taiwan’s Astonishing Abortion Rate." Asia Sentinel. 25 July 2011. <http://www.asiasentinel.com/society/taiwans-astonishing-abortion-rate/>.
TM, Crisp et.al. "Environmental endocrine disruption: An effects assessment and analysis." Environ Health Perspect. Feb 1998. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1533291/>.
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