A petition that demanded a total abolition of an illegal abortion got an agreement of one hundred thousand people on November 3rd to be discussed at a national assembly. It stood against a pre-announcement of legislation of the Korean government that decided to allow abortion until the 14th week of pregnancy. The government announced that the amendment would maintain illegal abortion in spite of the opposition of the female.

▲ The petition is calling for the total abolition of the illegal abortion and the guarantee of women`s right to reproduce.

The pre-announcement of the legislation explained that abortion until the 14th week would be totally allowed, and women who do this will not be punished. However, the abortion until the 24th week would be allowed only when it meets certain requirements such as a pregnancy caused by a sexual violation. This amendment was a follow up of the determination of the constitutional inconsistency on April 11th. It ordered to amend the provisions of the law since the criminal laws punishing pregnant women for having abortions on their own or for getting abortions by pregnant women excessively infringe on the right to self-determination of pregnant women.

▲ Women`s groups protesting against the government`s pre-announcement of the legislation to allow the abortion up to 14 weeks of pregnancy.

The petitioner explained that though a Constitutional Court judged an illegal abortion as a constitutional inconsistency, the government referred to allowing a selection abortion based on the number of weeks of pregnancy and still tried to violate the sovereignty over women's bodies. Moreover, the petitioner said that illegal abortion threatened not only women's sovereignty but also women's health right and persecute pregnant women economically.

The petitioner presented several detailed policies such as the total abolition of illegal abortion, changing the Maternal and Child Health Act to the Women and Children Health Act, and changing the term to "stop pregnancy". In addition, the petitioner proposed to permit to import of pregnancy stop-inducing drugs and to include the coverage of national health insurance for pregnancy stop surgery.

Nov. 14th, 2020

by Kim Hye-rin