個人抉擇或國家政策：近代中國節育的反思－從1920年代《婦女雜誌》出版產兒制限專號說起

Individual Choice or National Policy: Reflections on Birth Control in Modern China as Seen in the Special Issue on Limiting Births of the Ladies' Journal in the 1920s

呂芳上(Fang-Shang Lu)

《近代中國婦女史研究》 12期 (2004/12) Pp. 195-230

https://doi.org/10.6352/mhwomen.200412.0195

摘要

1922年6月，上海《婦女雜誌》出版了「產兒制限專號」，這是該誌爲了配合當年4月，美國著名的節育(birth control)運動者刪格爾夫人(Mrs. Margaret G, Sanger)訪華後，掀起的婦女解放熱潮而出版的。這個專號象徵的是1922年「科學的節育運動」已在中國展開。
「母性自決」是五四時期婦女解放的主題之一，其內容是產兒限制，亦即「生育自主」。這個觀念源自刪格爾夫人所大力推動的「科學避孕法」，其初衷是獲取母性的自由，實即女性的生育自主權。不過，1920年代以後的中國及1950年代後台灣的節育運動經驗顯示：節育如和經濟發展、人口問題相牽連，則女性生養子女便不再是「個人私事」，而是「國家公事」；在國家決定人口政策、決定生育政策下，女性終不免「生」不由己。早期，節育（墮胎）對婦女而言，本屬「犯罪」的行爲，其後作爲一種合法權利向社會提出的，但推展的結果，權利卻又變成義務。作爲人權的生育權，究竟誰屬？深值推敲。

關鍵字

婦女雜誌 ； 刪格爾夫人 ； 節育 ； 女權

並列摘要

The Shanghai Ladies' Journal (Funü zazhi) published a ”Special Issue on Limiting Births” in June 1922. This issue was published in reaction to the enthusiasm for women's liberation roused by the April visit to China of Margaret Sanger, the famous American birth control activist. The special issue symbolized the success that the ”scientific birth control movement” had achieved in China by 1922.
”Maternal choice” was a topic in May Fourth women's liberation discourse that focused on limiting births, that is, ”birth autonomy.” This notion, which originated in the ”scientific contraception” vigorously promoted by Sanger, was initially designed to achieve ”maternal liberation”-or in other words, a woman's right to make her own decisions about giving birth. However, the experience of the birth control movement in China since the 1 920s and in Taiwan since the 1 950s demonstrates that if birth control is linked to economic development and the population problem, then giving birth and raising children is no longer considered a ”personal issue” but a ”national concern.” Government population and birth policies meant that women could never decide about giving birth only with reference to themselves. Initially, women called for the right to birth control (abortion), which was at the time considered ”criminal behavior,” but in the end, a right became a duty. In the final analysis, we need to ask, to whom does the human right to give birth belong?

並列關鍵字

Ladies' Journal ； Margaret Sanger ； birth control ； women's rights

參考文獻

Chu, Leonard L.(1977).Planned Birth Campaigns in china 1949-1976.

Cox, H.(1925)。人口問題。

Dikotter, Frank(1999)。近代中國之種族觀念。

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FrankDikotter,Dikotter(1995).Sex, Culture and Modernity in China: Medical Science and the Construction of Sexual Identities in the Early Republican Period.