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Palau
ABORTION POLICY
Grounds on which abortion is permitted:
To save the life of the woman
To preserve physical health
To preserve mental health
Rape or incest
Foetal impairment
Economic or social reasons
Available on request
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
Additional requirements:
Not applicable.
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CONTEXT
Government's view on fertility level:
Satisfactory
Government's intervention concerning fertility level:
No intervention
Government's policy on contraceptive use:
Indirect support provided
Percentage of currently married women using
modern contraception (aged 15-49):
..
Total fertility rate (1995-2000):
..
Age-specific fertility rate (per 1,000 women aged 15-19, 1995-2000):
..
Government has expressed particular concern about:
Morbidity and mortality resulting from induced abortion
Complications of child-bearing and childbirth
..
..
Maternal mortality ratio (per 100,000 live births, 1990):
National
Oceania
..
680
Female life expectancy at birth (1995-2000):
..
Source: Population Policy Data Bank maintained by the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United
Nations Secretariat. For additional sources, see list of references.
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Palau
BACKGROUND
The status of abortion law in Palau is not entirely clear. Prior to its independence in 1994, Palau was one
component of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. Though nominally under the control of the United
Nations, the Trust Territory’s day-to-day administration, legislation, and adjudication were the responsibility of
the United States of America. As such, the legal system of the Territory was based on the Code of the Trust
Territory, imposed by the United States after the Second World War, and its development through court
decisions interpreting the common law as generally understood and applied in the United States.
The Trust Territory Code provided that every person who unlawfully caused the miscarriage or premature
delivery of a woman, with intent to do so, was guilty of the crime of abortion. Although the Code prohibited
all abortions, general criminal law principles of necessity could have been relied upon as a defence in the case
of an abortion performed to save the life of a pregnant woman. In 1971, however, the Appellate Division of
the High Court of the Trust Territory ruled that these abortion provisions were invalid because they were so
vague and indefinite as to constitute a denial of due process of law (Trust Territory v. Tarkong, 1971). The
Court objected to the fact that the provisions did not set forth any circumstances under which abortions were
legal. No replacement abortion provision was ever enacted. Since the United States Supreme Court decision in
Roe v. Wade established the right of a woman to obtain an abortion in the first two trimesters of pregnancy
only two years later, perhaps none was thought necessary as Trust Territory courts were required to follow
United States common law.
The above case suggests that up until independence, no valid abortion law was in effect in Palau and that
the holding of Roe v. Wade was applicable after 1973. Palau became independent in 1994 and entered into a
Compact of Free Association with the United States, with two attendant developments. First, independence
allowed courts in Palau to apply the common law of jurisdictions other than the United States, including
common law developed locally. Second, it gave a prominent place to local customary law in court
deliberations. Consequently, the exact status of the law on abortion remains unclear at this date. It may be that
the 1971 Appellate Court decision is applicable and that there is no abortion law, or that customary law of
some sort prevails. The Republic of Palau National Code, which is based on the Trust Territory Code, implies
that the former is the case. Although the Code defines abortion as a crime, reproducing the exact language of
the Trust Territory Code, the editor’s annotations to the Code still refer to the Appellate Court’s 1971 ruling
that these abortion provisions are invalid.
No reliable figures on abortion are readily available in Palau, which has a population of 18,000. The
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reports a contraceptive prevalence rate of 38 per cent.
Source: Population Policy Data Bank maintained by the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations
Secretariat. For additional sources, see list of references.
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