In the past, when the government wanted to increase the population, abortion was strictly prohibited. In the late 1950s, however, with the efforts of Chiang Meng-lin, director of the Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction, the government adopted a policy of slowing population growth. Another consideration was to try to prevent abortion from being an underground industry. Thus a provision was written into the 1983 Law allowing induced abortions.
過去在希望提昇人口，「增產報國」的前提下，墮胎曾被嚴禁；五○年代，在當時農復會主委蔣夢麟力爭下，政府開始提倡人口節制政策，加上為避免墮胎流入地下，後來優生保健法就在但書下通過人工流產。