A case of a South Korean YouTuber who had an abortion of her unborn child at 36 weeks is under investigation as murder, sending shockwaves in the nation and raising several grave questions about why South Korea has absolutely no abortion controls.
The South Korean government referred the woman for investigation to Seoul National Police in July after she posted to YouTube a video that chronicled her abortion procedure, the police told CNN.
Many jurisdictions ban abortions after 24 weeks, or they are restricted to very exceptional cases, such as fetal malformations or where the health of the mother is at risk.
There are no controls in place, under current South Korean law, on when, where, or how abortions can take place. And there have not been any for nearly four years.
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Experts maintain that this legal vacuum creates not only the possibility of malpractice but also makes safe abortions more difficult for women and physicians alike since they are operating in a grey area legally.
Eleven NGOs and women’s groups in South Korea blamed the government in a statement for attacking pregnant women who committed suicide instead of promoting access to abortion services.
According to the joint statement, this is nothing short of a pathetic and severe attempt to evade responsibility and shift blame.
A gap in the law
Consequently, performing an abortion was outlawed in South Korea for more than 60 years, punishable by imprisonment of up to two years, except under rape, incest, and conditions that are life-threatening to either the mother or the unborn child.
On the other hand, pregnant women who undergo an abortion may be imprisoned for up to one year.
The new abortion rules, which the court dictated should include a gestation limit of 22 weeks, would have to be enacted through the National Assembly before the end of 2020 after the South Korean Constitutional Court struck down the ban in 2019.
The criminal limitations regarding abortion expired when the legislature failed to act by that date; therefore, it is now legal for a woman to have an abortion at any stage in pregnancy.
Cho Hee-kyoung, a law professor at Hongik University in Seoul, faulted the National Assembly for “not doing its job” by failing to adopt legislation legalizing abortion.
“There is no crime for carrying out a conduct if there is no law criminalizing that conduct,” said Cho.
Decriminalization was hailed as a critical victory for reproductive rights activists, then facing fierce opposition from conservative and religious groups, some with ties with US anti-abortion efforts.
The reality of what has occurred in the years since has tempered their success.
“We have been requesting the health and welfare ministry to classify abortion as a right of health, not as a subject of punishment, and to come up with policies ever since the criminality of abortion was banned,” said Nayoung, a representative of SHARE. This South Korean organization offers services related to sexual and reproductive health and rights.
But no new legislation has been enacted. Instead, debate in the National Assembly on abortion legislation has faced new opposition from religious groups, which hold tremendous sway over lawmakers in a country where traditional gender norms prevail.
In June, the Ministry of Justice said it needed to confer with the Health and Welfare Ministry, which is in charge of the Maternal and Child Health Act. It had not yet decided “the direction, details, and timing of the revision” of abortion legislation.
It added, “The Ministry of Justice will make every effort to discuss the matter in order to harmonize the fetus’s right to life, as well as her right to health and self-determination.”
The Health and Welfare Ministry told CNN that since the proposed changes had expired due to the end of the parliament’s term in May, it would “actively support the legislative process” with the new National Assembly.
Shifting attitudes to abortion
Abortion was never as controversial in South Korea as it has been in the US, even though the country’s laws on abortion had been among the most stringent.
According to Cho, a law professor, between the 1960s and the mid-2000s, the South Korean government heavily emphasised family planning to slow down population development. Because of this, abortion was seen as an “alternative method of birth control.”
She pointed out that the social stigma attached to lone and unmarried mothers contributed to the quiet acceptance of abortions. “Abortions were being obtained even by police officers and their spouses, prosecutors and their spouses, and mistresses.”
Although abortion has long been legal in secret, restrictions on the practice started to be put in place in the middle of the 2000s.
The accusations against doctors for carrying out abortions led to a legal battle aimed at trying to protect women’s rights in seeking and obtaining abortions from doctors.
The South Korean government was then seeking ways to boost the country’s population at a time when the birth rate was declining. According to Cho, people’s views about abortion changed with the introduction of a new contraceptive method that may evade pregnancies.
“It’s not something that people do lightly, and they may see it as somewhat careless,” the woman said.
If overcrowding had been the inspiration for the government’s campaign for abortions, South Korea was now facing the opposite problem.
According to government statistics, in 2023, South Korea’s fertility rate was 0.72 children per woman, far below the rate of 2.1 that the OECD calculates a nation needs to achieve demographic stability without immigration. In contrast, according to World Bank estimates, the US fertility rate was 1.7 in 2022.
A total fertility rate of less than 1.5 may become self-reinforcing: low fertility discourages having babies, further depressing fertility rates and promoting population ageing and stagnation.
Abortions in South Korea are not regulated, so it is difficult to state the actual procedures performed annually.
According to Nayoung from SHARE, no proper historical comparison exists since patients paid the hospitals in cash while abortion was still illegal, which means no public record.
In any case, abortions have significantly lowered in recent decades: from 241,411 in 2008 to just 32,063 in 2020, the latest year estimates are available according to the Institute for Health and Social Affairs of South Korea.
Proponents say the valid abortion rate is likely to be much higher.
