Sweeping floors to kill babies – Is Korea’s anti-abortion law working?

 

Abortions were once so frequent and popular in South Korea that the country gained the dubious honor of being declared the “Abortion Republic,” at least according to the AP (March 18, 2010).   Even though the Korean government in 1953 had banned abortions except for in cases of rape, incest, or severe genetic defects, abortions were performed almost openly and for only a couple of hundred dollars (I am sure they were even cheaper than that depending on the year).  According to this editorial in Korea Herald (March 8, 2010):

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.

This year, however, the Korean government has sworn to resolve the ever decreasing birthrate and one way of doing this is to get tough on abortions.  But have abortions disappeared in South Korea? Apparently not: According to the AP article, a Mrs. Kim became pregnant with her third child and, already struggling to get by, decided to terminate the pregnancy.

It took Mrs. Kim 10 tries to find a doctor willing to perform an abortion, and he’s demanding nearly $1,000 in cash. To scrape together the money, the six-weeks pregnant woman took a second job cleaning an office building overnight for a few weeks.

“I can barely afford to have an abortion. How can I afford to raise and put a kid through college?” the 31-year-old secretary said, dunking a rag into a bucket of water.

As she sacrifices sleep to save up for her abortion, Mrs. Kim says she is trying to safeguard her family’s well-being by terminating the pregnancy.

“Our current income is just enough to feed four and educate the two,” she said. “Activists and policymakers can debate all they want, but I’m the one sweeping floors to kill my baby.”

Apparently some of the doctors she had approached were similar to these doctors we discussed in an earlier thread:  Dr. Choi Anna and Shim Sang-duk who basically sold thier souls for $340 dollars performing abortions but later had a change of heart.  It is also interesting to note that Mrs. Kim’s abortion was for $1,000 dollars, which, even though it is nearly three times what Drs. Choi and Shim charged, it is still cheaper than the going price.  According to this AFP article (March 9, 2010):

Byun Hea-Joung, a counsellor and professor at Sogang University, said the cost of an abortion had risen from 300,000 won (264 dollars) to three million won and would continue to increase.

“The rich will still be able to have the surgery performed, but otherwise not,” she said.

Women’s rights activist Kim Doo-Na said many abortions stem from socio-economic difficulties.

“Not solving the fundamental issue first and banning abortion will have the side effect of women getting abortions from unprofessional operators,” she said.

“And, of course, abortion rates will not go down.”

The difficulty and cost may have led one young Korean mother to suffocate her newborn to death in her motel room in Seoul last month (AP article).

“In the current social mood against abortions, I knew that I could get arrested trying to get one, but also that I couldn’t afford one anyway because prices have risen so much,” the woman said, according to a police statement.

Some people don’t think it’s all about economics but rather social norms that are the leading causes for South Korean abortions- (AP article): 

Birth control is still a taboo in South Korea, a society shaped by a Confucian heritage that prizes chastity. Lack of education on birth control means too many unplanned pregnancies, said women’s rights activist Kim Doo-na.

This seems to support the ungodly high numbers of young Koreans who have unprotected sex (tried to find the link for 10 Magazine’s By the Number section which had the figures – David could you provide the link?) But Grand Narrative also did a long and very interesting posting about this problem. Matt at Gust of Popular Feeling also has a great posting about this subject (seems we were writing ours at the same time).  Korea Times (March 16, 2010) and  JoongAng Daily had two article about teen pregnancies in Korea one on (March 16, 2010) and the other on (March 18, 2010) (note that I have added parts from both JoongAng articles to make it more readable)

Last April, Kim Su-hyeung, who attended Ganghwa Girls High School in Incheon, took a pregnancy test.

The result was devastating.

“I held on to the test kit and just wept,” she recalled. “Everything went black.”

The father: Kim’s boyfriend, Choi Seong-ho, 25 years old at the time.

After some discussion with Choi, Kim decided to have the child but also continue with her high school education. But when teachers learned of the situation, they told Kim to bring her parents to school because she needed to drop out or go to another school. They told Kim that school regulations state that any student who disrupts the moral code of the school with an “unwholesome relationship” is subject to expulsion.

The next day, Kim’s mother, Yang Gyeong-ae, 47, got on her knees and pleaded with Kim’s main teacher, saying that if her daughter was expelled, she would not be able to enroll again at a high school or even take a high school equivalency test.

Kim’s teachers, however, were adamant. She had to leave. They even threatened to report Kim’s boyfriend to police for having sexual relations with a minor.

After she was forced to drop out of school, her mother brought the case to the attention of the National Human Rights Commission. The commission announced that it is discriminatory for any school to force a student to drop out because she is pregnant. Kim was able to return to school, graduate and also give birth. She is now a mother and a freshman in college.

There can’t be enough emphasis on the fact that teenage pregnancy is not an ideal situation. It is crucial to prevent it as much as possible. To do this, schools need to strengthen their sex education programs. Also, in order to lower the rate of irresponsible sexual intercourse among teens, a policy to provide child support from unwed fathers must be pursued and measures to support unwed mothers must be planned.

Thousands of teens become pregnant in Korea each year. The government’s present policy is to provide 100,000 won ($88.61) each month to unwed mothers. However, there is no better support than to allow them to continue their education.

Fortunately for Kim, her boyfriend apparently is willing to do this with her.  The Korea Herald  (February 28, 2010) stated:

According to the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs, about 6,000 to 10,000 babies are born out of wedlock every year in Korea.

They accounted for 1.6 percent of the total births, the lowest level among OECD member states. While Japan has the second lowest 2.1 percent, the figures in the United States and France are 38.5 percent and 50.4 percent, respectively.

Fearing financial and social struggles, 96 percent of unmarried pregnant women have abortions, and of those who choose to give birth, 70 percent give up their children for adoption, the state-run Korean Women’s Development Institute reports.

But perhaps it isn’t just about the taboo of birth control or the lack of sex education – perhaps it is something deeper.  According to the AP article:

Kim Hee-young of the nonprofit Korea Womenlink group called the crackdown a quick fix to a much deeper problem: the status of women in patriarchal South Korea.

“Women aren’t getting abortions because they don’t want children but because the country has yet to create an environment conducive to raising children,” said Ran Hee, who directs human rights policy at Korea Women’s Hotline.

This Washington Post article (March 1, 2010) also noted that the workplace was not mother-friendly in Korea. According to it, “for South Korean women, choosing to have children usually means falling off the career track. There is a 30 percent employment gap here between men and women, the fourth-largest gap in the world, after Turkey, Mexico and Greece.”

(apologies for the rough read – a little tired) Cartoon Credit – The Hankyoreh, March 6, 2010.

Note – ROK DROP also did a posting about pregnant kids in school.