A writing of petition entitled <Please legalize a illegal abortion and introduce revulsive of spontaneous abortion (Mipeujin)> was posted on cheongwadae national petition board on September 30, 2017. Over 230,000 people agreed with this petition. Through this process, constitutional court reached the ‘Constitutional nonconformity’ verdict on April 11. It is a decision to admit that have unconstitutionality in certain article but judge that is valid until a certain time. Such judgement of constitutional court means that our society changed its perception of an illegal abortion and improved women’s rights. Let’s look into some problems that have occurred since 1973 when abortion was illegalized and think about the essence and duplicity of an illegal abortion. And let’s inquire into the opinion that is opposed to abolition of illegal abortion and the reason why illegal abortion should be abolished.
In my opinion, I approve of ‘an abolition of an illegal abortion’. The original purpose for an illegal abortion is to reduce the abortion rate. But we can know that the present situation is different from the original purpose. According to total abortion numbers in 2010, the number of legal abortions is 4,500 cases but the numbers of abortion estimated is 169,000 cases. That means the legal domain is only 3 percent. If we search ‘abortion’ in SNS, we can find out that an abortion hospital and an abortion pill is searched by many people. This means that abortion and purchasing of abortion pill are still occurring, contrary to the purpose of an illegal abortion.
According to the result of the survey of abortion in 2010, Ministry of welfare predicts that abortion will occur 168,738 cases annually. But the medical association of obstetrician estimates that the average numbers of abortions per day in our country is about 3000 and abortions occurred 1000,000 cases annually. This means that there are many abortions that the government has not recognized and there are many women that are exposed to the dangers of illegal surgery. Currently, Korea is trying to reduce abortion rate but illegal surgery is still increasing due to regulations that are out of touch with reality. The responsibility about side effects that occurred from illegal surgery is all up to women. Many women’s health is threatened by having surgery in untested hospital and taking a untested medicine and they have a difficult time by huge cost of surgery. An illegal abortion which seeks to protect the right of a fetus is rather threatening the right of women’s life and health.
However, It isn’t that the nation completely illegalize abortion. Abortion is legalized in cases when parents have a genetic disorder and an infectious disease, pregnancy by rape, pregnancy between relatives, pregnancy that threatens the mother’s life. Like this, Korea is very restricted in allowing the scope of abortion. It does not consider the situation of the women such as their economic status, marriage status, and their social status. This completely excludes women’s right to decide on their body and life. The birthright of fetus is important, but self-determination of women who lives with that body is also important.
I think that whether an illegal abortion to be abolished or not is related with how the country reflects women’s opinion. It hasn’t been long since our country started listening to women’s stories and actively reflecting women’s opinion. According to the survey conducted by the Korean women’s policy research institute to 2006 women aged 16 to 44 in 2018, 77.3 percent of the respondents approved the abolition of an illegal abortion. That is, three out of four women approved the abolition of an illegal abortion. abortion is a problem for the nation, for men, for women and for all of us. But abortion is a problem that depends a women’s life. So, we should listen to women’s stories and actively reflect women’s opinions.
Then, what about the opinion of the opposite side of abolition of an illegal abortion? They claim that if an illegal abortion is abolished, there will be increased in number of reckless abortions. But their claim is never logical. There is the result of investigation of abortion number per 1.000 women aged from 15 to 44 in US from 1973 to 2005, conducted in Guttmacher Institute in 2010. The result of investigation shows that the abortion rates soared to 1 million numbers in 1975 after legalization of abortion in 1970. Those who oppose the abolition of an illegal abortion pointed out the rapid increase in abortion rates after the legalization of an illegal abortion. But, it can’t say that actual abortion number increased because there are abortion number that was not exposed due to illegal surgery. Actual number of abortion rate has decreased since 1985 and now reached about the same level as when abortion was legal. In other words, the claim of opponents of abortion is based on false statistic interpretation.
The moment when the nation confirms abortion as a crime, abortion will move more actively in the dark and women will suffer a lot from guilt and unsafe surgery. Like I mention before there is a possibility to result in social chaos due to unknown number of abortions. But if we look at it in the long run for about 10 to 20 years, the abolition of an illegal abortion will have a positive effect. If it can result in good outcome, an illegal abortion should be abolished. even if it takes a long time to be stabilized, the chaos after abolition of an illegal abortion. Constitutional court reach the ‘constitutional nonconformity’ last April. National assembly has to listen to women’s stories and actively reflect the opinion of women until December 31, 2020. If the nation thinks and treat women as a person that have the right and duty to live her own life before they think of them as mothers, Korea will be a better country.
