West Jakarta Immigration Officers recently arrested two Chinese nationals suspected of performing illegal abortions.
The two women, identified as WY and WT, supposedly opened a beauty salon that also served as an underground abortion clinic. Authorities say they were operating out of a unit in the Mediterranean Apartments in Taman Sari, West Jakarta.
Police say that the uncovering of the illegal practice was the result of a week of surveillance done by an immigration officer.
During their raid of the apartment, officers found medical equipment and medicines in line with their suspicions that illegal abortions were being performed, as well as evidence that they had been doing abortions for two years.
Authorities have not yet announced what criminal charges the women will face.
Abortions are illegal in most cases in Indonesia, except in rare instances where the pregnancy is judged to be putting the life of the mother at risk. Consequently, many women to turn to illegal abortion clinics, often run by people without any formal medical training. It has been estimated that three out of every 1,000 Indonesian women between the ages of 15 and 44 are hospitalized each year due to complications from botched abortions.
