[EDITORIAL] Abortion debates

Deaf to pro-life and pro-choice debates raging overseas, doctors and women with unwanted pregnancies here have long resorted to the illegal but easy solution of abortion while government authorities looked the other way. Belatedly, government steps to strengthen controls on abortion as a means of tackling the low birth rate are driving groups of concerned doctors and women`s rights advocates into confrontation over the perennial worldwide issue.

They stage separate demonstrations and issue statements with opposing arguments to appeal for public support for their respective causes. Interestingly, both sides criticized government policies to discourage abortion as a mere collection of ineffective measures that do not offer practical help for women in desperate situations. Many doubt that the release of 100,000 won or about $90 per child to single-parent families, for example, would stop unmarried pregnant women from having abortions.



From the beginning, the government approach to abortion control in its demographic policy was wrong. Unmarried women go to abortion clinics for the same reason that married women avoid pregnancy in Korean families; it is too much of a burden to deliver and raise a child because of the general lack of childcare facilities at workplaces and the anticipated high cost of education in the future. As for doctors, the low birthrate has reduced their income and they have had to supplement their earnings with abortion operations.

The Criminal Code provisions on abortion are nearly dead. The law allows for up to one year in prison and a 2 million won in fine for women who have illegal abortions, and up to two years in jail for the doctors who provide them. A sample survey in 2005 estimated that there were 340,000 abortions carried out in a year. Out of that many cases, only about 30 have been brought to the court over the past five years, mostly resulting in probation or fines.

Any attempt at finding a short-term solution will be futile. First, the Criminal Code needs to be revised to remove the unrealistic imprisonment provisions. The Mother and Child Health Law should be amended to provide more comprehensive but specific conditions for permitting abortion, and to require expert counseling for women before visiting clinics. If the administration authorities want to do something to raise the birthrate, they should make strenuous efforts to ease the burden of childcare rather than cracking down on abortionist doctors all of a sudden.

Public debates on abortion should be further encouraged to produce social consensus on the issue from a prudent considerations on the fundamental ethical and health problems. A 10-fold rise in doctors` fees for abortion since the authorities tightened surveillance on them is the most deplorable consequence of the short-sighted government action.