By M.E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

SEOUL, South Korea –Discussion in South Korea surrounding the topic of abortion has taken on new found importance and public debate despite the being traditionally only talked about privately.

Presently, South Korea has a declining birthrate. Two doctors willing to speak about the issue, Dr. Choi and Dr. Shim, are hoping to force South Korea’s first serious public discussion of the ethics of the procedure. In November, they and dozens of other obstetricians held a news conference at which they asked for “forgiveness” for having performed illegal abortions.

Dr. Choi and Dr. Shim helped form a group, Gynob, that has reached out to other doctors to indicate whether they have performed similar illegal abortions. They formed another group this past December, Pro-Life Doctors, that tries to discourage women from having abortions and instead promotes adoption. The group also has a hot line that reports clinics that perform the procedure illegally. The group hopes to start to report individual practitioners who engage in illegal abortions to police to take further action.

In South Korea, the country has a, Mother and Child Health Law, which permits abortion only when the mother’s health is in serious danger, or in cases of rape, incest or severe hereditary disorders. It is never allowed after the first 24 weeks of pregnancy. As punishment when illegally performed, the woman faces up to a year in prison, and the doctor could be sentenced up to two years in jail. Part of Gynob’s mission is to illustrate the hypocrisy of having such a law that is loosely enforced. The group intends to protest and begin a campaign to end abortion altogether. Prior to the interest generated by these doctors and coalition they have formed, for decades, the South Korean government tended to look the other way, seeing a high birthrate as an impediment to economic growth. In the 1970s and ’80s, families with more that two children were denounced as unpatriotic, with official posters in South Korean villages driving the point home. Until the early 1990s, men could be exempted from mandatory army reserve duty if they had vasectomies.

However, this mindset has changed. Now, the government has concluded that this policy was too successful. South Korea’s fertility rate, which stood at 4.5 children per woman in the 1970s, had fallen to 1.19 children by 2008, and was one of the lowest in the world. The government fears that the recent financial downturn may have lowered it further. There is also the fear that the country’s rapidly aging population will undercut the economy’s viability even more.

In a recent statement, Health Minister, Jeon Jae-hee said, “Even if we don’t intend to hold anyone accountable for all those illegal abortions in the past, we must crack down on them from now on.” Ms. Jeon added that any crackdown should be coupled with an increase in medical fees. The government cap on payments for medical services is thought to have encouraged doctors to perform off-the-books, and potentially far more lucrative, services like illegal abortions.

The campaign to end abortion by Gynob faces resistance from doctors who believe women should be afforded the freedom of choice, and many of these doctors think that a crackdown that does not address the causes of abortion will only cause greater problems. In response, Baik Eun-jeong, an obstetrician who runs a clinic in Seoul’s upscale Kangnam district and speaker for the Korean Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said, “We credit them for bringing a widespread but hushed-up social anomaly to the surface, but we can’t go along with their radical tactics.”

In the present state of debate, the discussion will continue as those in support of the anti-abortion law attempt to sway the opinions of abortion supporters.

For more information, please see:

New York Times –South Korea Confronts Open Secret of Abortion – January 5, 2010

Los Angeles Times – In South Korea, abortion foes gain ground – November 29, 2009

Chicago Tribune – Rights for the Unborn Dead: Abortion in Korea – December 3, 2009