Seoul, South Korea

In South Korea, a blogger has courted controversy by claiming that she terminated her pregnancy at 36 weeks or nine months. Her claims are being investigated for murder and have prompted horror. 

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But how is such a thing possible? Let's have a look at South Korean abortion laws.

The case

According to a CNN report, police in Seoul began investigating the woman in July at the request of the South Korean government after the blogger posted a video on YouTube purportedly documenting her experience of getting an abortion.

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South Korean abortion laws

In the country, currently, there are no laws governing when, where, or how abortions can take place. 

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However, this was not always the case. For the last four years, there has been a policy vacuum. But before that, strict laws governing the medical procedure made abortion a crime punishable by up to two years in prison. It only limited exceptions for rape, incest, and a threat to the life, health of the mother or the baby.

In 2019, the South Korean Constitutional Court overturned the stringent ban and gave the National Assembly under the end of 2020 to enact new abortion laws with a recommended term of up to 22 weeks. However, the legislature did not manage to meet the prescribed deadline, effectively legalizing abortion at any stage of pregnancy.

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In June, in a statement posted to its website, South Korea's Ministry of Justice said that "the direction, details, and timing of the revision" of the country's abortion laws is yet to be decided, and that it needs to consult with the Health and Welfare Ministry — which oversees the Maternal and Child Health Act.

"The Ministry of Justice will do its best to discuss the issue so that the right to life of the fetus, and the right to health and the right to self-determination of the pregnant woman can be harmonised," it added.

Even though the abortion ban is no longer in place, there exists an absence of clear regulation due to which there exists a grey area about what is permitted and what is not. As per CNN, credible information about where to get an abortion is hard to get by. 

(With inputs from agencies)