In South Korea, an abortionist was given a suspended jail term after a teenager died from surgical complications during an abortion.
In November 2012, the Seoul Eastern District Court convicted the doctor, who’s identified only as Jeong, of causing the death of a 17-year-old girl named Lee. Lee was 23-weeks pregnant and her baby was thought to have Down syndrome.
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The courts decided that Jeong would be sentenced to a year in prison as well as have her doctor’s license suspended for two years. The judge presiding over the case, Cho-Kye-Seol, said that Jeong fabricated Lee’s health records to say she became pregnant after rape.
As LifeNews previously reported, in 2012 South Korea upheld their 59-year abortion ban that outlaws the procedure except in cases of rape, incest, severe genetic disorders or health of the mother. However, unfortunately, abortions are still performed illegally in South Korea by profit-driven doctors. Pro-life doctor, Young-Gyung, explained, “In [the doctors’] opinion, the South Korea’s low fertility rate has originated from its high abortion rate, which, in turn, was the result of the immoral and profit-oriented conducts of Korean medical doctors.”
Young-Gyung is a part of an organization called the Pro-Life Doctors Association and decided to do research on why illegal abortions are happening in his country. He said, “Most abortions used to be easily performed because doctors or women undergoing abortions were not prosecuted even though abortion was illegal. Even after the country had become economically successful, the “trend of encouraging abortion was prevalent in our society and as a result, women used to be compelled by social pressure to undergo abortion.”
Additionally, Young-Gyung said that although the media paints pro-life activism as a “war between doctors,” his interviews with both sides found it was fostered by the development of neo-natal medical technologies, decreased interest in embryonic stem cell research, the rise of disability activism, as well as concern about depopulation.
In 2010, former abortionist, Shim Sang Aduk, told the Los Angeles Times that at one time she thought performing illegal abortion was justifiable.
She said, “I bought into the government’s argument that it was OK to do this. [I thought] it was good for the country. It boosted the economy.” Now Shim has founded the Korean Gynecological Physicians’ Association to encourage other doctors to stop performing abortions and call on the government to enforce the law’s penalties.
