South Korea Vs Abortion! Fight!

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

http://news.yahoo.com/korea-court-upholds-abortion-punishment-102939047.html

South Korea's top court Thursday struck down a challenge calling for an end to tough legal punishments for midwives and others administering illegal abortions.

Abortion is outlawed in South Korea, except in cases where the procedure takes place before the 24th week of pregnancy and the mother's health is in danger, the foetus is malformed or the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest.

A midwife filed a petition against a clause of the law stipulating a maximum two-year jail term for doctors, midwives, traditional medicine doctors, or pharmacists who perform an illegal abortion.

She challenged the law's constitutionality after going on trial for helping a woman terminate her pregnancy in 2010.

The constitutional court, however, dismissed the petition saying lighter punishment would only make abortion more rampant.

Official data showed that more than 340,000 abortions were conducted in 2005, 95 percent of them illegally. No later figures were available.

Abortion has for decades been widely tolerated by successive governments trying to control birth in a crowded society.


Interestingly, some fellow expats and I were discussing abortion in Korea just the other week. During the talk I was really surprised at just how easy getting an abortion was despite it being illegal. Finding someone who will do the procedure isn't difficult and getting it all set up is very quick according to one girl who was willing to tell her tale.

Frankly I'm bothered that abortion can be done with less fuss in a place where it's illegal than in the US. And keep in mind that Korea is the second most Christian nation in Asia. Street prechers and other soapbox types aren't uncommon on the subway or in certain parts of town. But hoesntly, if population control is such an issue then IMO Korea just needs to bite the bullet and make it legal. Doing otherwise makes a nation obsessed with being "modern" seem painfully backwards.

Comments

[evildevil.livejournal.com]

worst kept secret. Abortion is not only practiced, or tolerated, but there are actually very nice clean clinics. they look nothing like abortion clinics. the reason for it is that abortion doctors are getting paid very good fees (not too high or too low, just the right amount) per abortion (this applies to the cities, not sure about the countryside). but I can see the logic for tolerating the practice: one, the place is a peninsula, mountainous, most of the food is imported. If the government is worried with regards with overpopulation but wants to save face with the religious group, they just "pretend" there are no issues with illegal abortions.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Their country is becoming too narrow for the Koreans? They may need to expand their lebensraum. By making a massive StarCraft invasion on adjacent lands. No one can resist the South Korean Protoss-Zealot battalions!

[notmrgarrison.livejournal.com]

24 weeks is almost 2/3's of the way thru. You're saying 95% of abortions happen after 24 weeks?

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

I don't know enough numbers to say "most." But looking the other way is an art form here so make of that what you will.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Sounds familiar.

[koken23.livejournal.com]

You'd be surprised how many abortions DO happen after 24 weeks - that's not two thirds of the way through, it's barely past halfway. Full term is 40 weeks. Many first pregnancies go past that.

For a woman who lives in a rural area and who hasn't had much access to prenatal care before that marker, 24 weeks may be the earliest she could do. If she's trying to raise funds to pay for the procedure (perhaps she's young and can't tell her parents, perhaps her partner is abusive and she has to get free of him or do it all without him knowing) she may not be in her preferred circumstances before that deadline hits.

Or for people who find out in the gender scan (roughly 20 weeks) that their fetal blob of a future-baby has something not quite as it should be. The law in South Korea says that it must be before 24 weeks. Even if the child is likely to have disabilities the parents are not equipped to care for, even if the child will live to term but die shortly after, the deadline is inflexible.

How long would it take to schedule a procedure, satisfy all the current legal requirements, fill out all the paperwork, move to the top of the waiting list...how long will all that stuff take if you only found out something was wrong at 20 or 21 weeks? Or later, even, as may parents do?

Someone who only found out there was a problem at 20 weeks is probably still going to be waiting for the go ahead by the time that 24 week deadline passes. And then they're stuck.

[evildevil.livejournal.com]

which is why the go to private clinics or other places to do it and the doctors dont mind performing it as long as they get paid.

[koken23.livejournal.com]

At present though, that's pretty much illegal, yes?

If it's past that deadline, they're breaking the law to do it. If the pregnancy isn't the result of rape (or even if it is and the woman just didn't report it, as many women don't, or if it is and her rapist wasn't charged...), they're breaking the law to do it. That's what this post was about - doctors and nurses from these private clinics going to jail for performing the procedure, even when it's necessary.

[evildevil.livejournal.com]

yes, it is illegal, and most of the time it is ignored, unless someone makes too much of a fuss about it (like a religious zealot group, so the police are forced to enforce the law and such), and depending of the prosecutor, they may not even bother if they fit the criteria of why the abortion was performed. Still, cases of arrest do happen, they are rare, but most of the time people pretend there are no abortions taking place, or at least society as a whole pretends. It would be much better if they would just stop pretending there are no illegal abortions performed, admit that South Korea has one of the highest abortion rates in the developed world, and just legalize it.

[notmrgarrison.livejournal.com]

You'd be surprised how many abortions DO happen after 24 weeks

Numbers are one thing. I'm talking about the percentages. Maybe a better way to say is only 5% occur before the 24th week. Just sounds very hard to believe. Especially when it goes from legal to illegal.

top of the waiting list

If only 5% are doing it legally, it seems the waiting list wouldn't be that long, or the illegal list is monstrous.


But otherwise, I really don't care.

[koken23.livejournal.com]

I think maybe you've misunderstood what those percentages apply to.

The law says that abortions must happen before the 24th week AND be performed only on pregnancies that are the result of rape or incest/endanger the mother's life/malformed fetus. It's not a case where having any one of these circumstances makes it legit, you have to have ALL of them.

How many rapes go unreported, or end with the rapist never being charged through lack of evidence? How many 'malformed fetuses' are only discovered after the deadline, or only picked up at the 20 week scan and then it takes more than four weeks to arrange the procedure? How many cases are there where a child just flat out isn't wanted, but the mother's life isn't endangered by carrying it so she can't take the legal route?

I think maybe THAT'S where the 95% figure comes from.

[notmrgarrison.livejournal.com]

AND

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

That makes sense now.

Edit: Actually, now the 5% figure sounds high.

[mutive.livejournal.com]

Well, the wording is "less than 24 weeks *and*..."

[notmrgarrison.livejournal.com]

Makes all the difference.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

I wonder why no later figures beyond 2005 were available. The government must have some data, after all.

So abortion has been widely tolerated by the governments, but they're still adamant about keeping this law that's supposed to hinder abortions? Hmmm. Do we have a "Do as I say, not as I do" type of situation here?

Being a very Christian country is in the same league as being a very Muslim country, as far as abortion is concerned, I think. If not a league below in that respect.

On a more non-serious note, abortion talk was all we needed to spice up a Friday! THE HORROR!

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

On a more non-serious note, abortion talk was all we needed to spice up a Friday! THE HORROR!

I live to spread happiness wherever I go.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

You choose the people you know based on their stance about abortion? Or does it just happen that all the people you know share your stance? ;)

[hourglasscreate.livejournal.com]

Well, the US thinks it's the most modern country in the world and one of our major political parties wants to take abortion away from us, so I don't see how SK not having legal abortion makes it any less modern than we are.

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

I could also point out the lack of racial discrimination laws here but that would be going off topic. Oh, and central AC is the exception not the norm here. If that doesn't say less modern I don't know what does.