Abortion Debate

[Anchor Lead]

An organization of gynecologists has announced that they will not perform abortions in a protest to the Ministry of Health and Welfare's decision to define abortion as an unethical act and punish the doctors who perform abortions with suspension of their medical license. The abortion controversy has spread as the Constitutional Court prepares to rule on the constitutionality of abortion.

[Pkg]

This woman had an abortion last week. She decided to abort her fetus, because she had a hard time taking care of her two children and believed she would be further burdened financially if she had a third child. Abortion is illegal under the current law.

[Soundbite] (Abortion patient (Voice Modified)) : "I do regret it. I wanted to have the baby, but it's realistically not possible."

Women have been raising voices to give pregnant women the right to their own bodies. But the Ministry of Health and Welfare toughened an administrative regulation to punish doctors who perform abortions. The Ministry has defined abortion as an unethical act and stipulated that the medical license of a doctor who performs abortions would be suspended for one month.

[Soundbite] Gwak Soon-heon(Ministry of Health and Welfare) : "The penalty has been clarified to one-month suspension of medical license."

Gynecologists protested the government's decision by arguing that 29 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member countries allow abortion for socioeconomic reasons. They also pointed out that allowing abortions based only on a mother's conditions is questionable. They claim that it's medically unreasonable to ban abortion even when a fetus is found to have a congenital deformity. Also, doctors and women are the only ones held accountable for having abortions. In 2010, a government study found that about 160,000 abortions were carried out annually. Gynecologists' refusal to perform abortions is bound to cause confusion in hospitals and clinics.