South Korean Health Experts Advocate Changes To Abortion Ban, Face Opposition From Antiabortion Groups

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 08 Apr 2008 - 10:00 PDT

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Some public health experts in South Korea are advocating for changes to the country's abortion law but have been facing opposition from antiabortion groups and the South Korean government, Reuters reports. Abortions have been banned in the country since 1953 except to save the life of the woman, in cases of a sexual crime or if the fetus would have severe birth defects.

Although most abortions are banned in the country, many law enforcement officials "look the other way" as long as abortions are performed by trained physicians, Reuters reports. Physicians face up to two years in prison and/or the loss of their licenses for performing illegal abortions, but only a few cases have been prosecuted in court. Physicians also are not allowed to reveal the sex of the fetus to expectant parents because of a cultural preference for boys. According to the most recent statistics, about 350,000 abortions were performed in the country in 2005, or about 80% of the total number of infants born that year. Most abortions performed in the country are among single women and "not for health reasons," according to Park Sung-chul, a physician who closed his private clinic because of lost income when he stopped performing abortions.

Kim So-yoon, a professor of medical law and ethics at Yonsei University who headed a government team that investigated how to reform the country's abortion law, said the law was "set up under different ideals" than those that currently exist and should be changed. Kim, with the support of women's rights groups, is lobbying to broaden the conditions under which abortion is permitted, an approach seen as more "expedient than striking down the old law and drawing up a new one."

According to Reuters, Christians who are opposed to abortion make up about one-third of South Korea's population and are resisting changes to the current law. "The government, under its family planning policy, has planted in people's minds for the past 35 years the idea that there is nothing wrong with abortion, Kim Hyeon-chul, a minister and leader of the country's antiabortion movement, said. In addition, many physicians are opposed to changes in the law because they do not want to lose income from performing clandestine abortions, which are paid for in cash or credit and are often not reported on taxes (Lee, Reuters, 4/4).

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