South Korean Women Fight Stigma Against Single Mothers

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Pregnancy / Obstetrics;  Public Health
Article Date: 09 Oct 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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A small group of South Korean women is working to establish the country's first association to defend the rights of unmarried pregnant women to give birth and raise their own children, the New York Times reports. The group has garnered support from Korean-born adoptees and their foreign families, who are advocating for increased rights and state-sponsored welfare support for unwed women with dependent children.

According to the Times, social pressures against single motherhood in South Korea lead thousands of unmarried pregnant women to either seek an abortion or place their children for adoption each year. Although abortion is illegal in South Korea, the nation's Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs estimates that nearly 96% of unwed pregnant women obtain abortions. Of those who give birth, 70% place the infants for adoption, according to a government-sponsored survey. The country's health ministry estimates that nearly 90% of the 1,250 South Korean children adopted abroad in 2008 were born to single women. Unmarried women who choose to keep their children are often socially ostracized, facing poverty, eviction, job discrimination and condemnation from their partner's family.

The Times reports that the women's attempt to change attitudes toward single motherhood "is striking at one of the great ironies of South Korea," where the "government and commentators fret over the country's birth rate, one of the world's lowest, and deplore South Korea's international reputation as a baby exporter for foreign adoptions." Although the government spends billions of dollars trying to improve the birth rate -- including through subsidized fertility treatments for married couples -- it also sponsors an annual adoption day and pays a monthly allowance of $85 per child to families that adopt children. Single women with dependent children receive half that amount.

According to health ministry official Baek Su-hyun, the government wants to increase its services and payments to unmarried mothers, but many single pregnant women are hesitant to come forward because of the social stigma (Sang-Hun, New York Times, 10/8).

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