hankyoreh

The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family Affairs announced two days ago a comprehensive plan for the prevention of artificial abortions that includes measures to deal with abortion, which has recently become a more visible social point of contention. Their measures include the push for a social contract to create an atmosphere respectful of life, encouraging the use of birth control, the creation of an emergency hotline for pregnancy counseling, the creation of a tip center for reporting hospitals performing illegal abortions, and the creation of an abortion prevention counseling system.

In viewing these comprehensive measures, however, it remains doubtful whether the government intends to really face the seriousness of the issue head-on. This is because the majority of the measures are comprised of policies of dubious efficacy that do not address the root causes of the issue.

The number one reason for which our abortion rates are so high that our country has been branded a “Republic of Abortions” is the socio-economic environment unfriendly to raising children. According to the data released by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family Affairs (MHWFA) yesterday, the reasons why married women, who make up 58 percent of the women who have undergone abortion procedures, chose to have abortions are because they do not want children (70 percent) and financial difficulties (17.5 percent). In the case of unmarried women, 93.7 percent said they underwent an abortion procedure because they were not married. They are saying that having children is difficult because of child-rearing and economic burdens in the case of married women, and because of social prejudice and financial difficulties in the case of unmarried women.

MHWFA’s measures mention none of these issues. The only positive policy they have managed to push through is boost the current child-rearing subsidies for unwed teen mothers from the current 50,000 Won per month ($44 USD) to 100,000 won and create matching funds, however, this measure is insufficient to properly deal with the matter at hand. Obstetrician-gynecologists (OB/GYN) themselves remain doubtful over whether the rule that would expel doctors who advertise illegal abortions three times from the Korean Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists will be effective.

The more concerning thing is the plan to create a tip center for hospitals performing illegal abortions to launch criminal complaints. Shocking news has already begun to spread that since the ProLife, an organization of obstetricians, filed a complaint against a doctor performing abortions, the cost of abortions has skyrocketed and run-away teen girls have been chipping in to form “abortion funds” to pay for skyrocketing costs. Far from a solution, breathing new life into a law that had rendered itself dead that will result in turning only doctors and women into criminals will just create new problems threatening women’s rights to life and health.

The abortion issue, the product of distorted policies and social culture and a dramatic polarization, cannot be solved overnight. Along with creating an atmosphere of respecting both life and women‘s bodies through pregnancy and birth-control education and legalizing emergency contraceptive pills, it is urgent we create the socio-economic conditions that allow women to choose birth rather than abortion.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]