*Japan Times, Apr. 19, 2019
BY BEH LIH YI
THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION
KUALA LUMPUR – South Korea is set to legalize abortion after a decadeslong ban was struck down, but women’s rights campaigners have warned those who undergo the procedure will still be “punished in the eyes of society.”
In a landmark verdict last week, a South Korean court ruled the ban — which dates from 1953 — unconstitutional and asked the government to legalize abortion by the end of 2020.
Under the ban, as it currently stands, women who have abortions can be jailed for up to a year and get a fine, while doctors who perform the procedure at the woman’s request can face imprisonment of up to two years.
The ruling was lauded as a victory for gender equality, but women’s rights activists said conservative values mean women — even doctors — would still face stigma, hampering access to abortion.
“Even if women are no longer criminals under the law for abortion, they will still be punished in the eyes of the society,” said Jiann Woo, who has organized protests against the ban since 2016.
“Abortion is still seen as immoral here — it is only something that the ‘single, naughty girls’ would do,” added the 25-year-old student, co-founder of Femidangdang, a Seoul-based women’s rights group.
The Roman Catholic Church, with 5 million adherents — out of a population of 51 million in South Korea — has taken a firm stance against the ruling.
“A nation has a responsibility to protect its people’s life and safety under any circumstances,” Seoul’s Roman Catholic Archbishop Andrew Yeom Soo-jung said, adding he is “worried” over the ruling.
“Every life, from the moment of conception, should be protected as a human being,” he added in a statement.
South Korea became one of the last developed countries where abortion is a crime after Ireland voted in a referendum last year to overturn its highly restrictive abortion laws.
