Women have continued to access abortion illegally in defiance of 65-year-old law
K im Soo-jin will never forget the disgusting taste of the pulpy green-brown traditional Korean brew she drank in the hopes of ending her pregnancy, or the night she spent in pain, curled into a ball and unable to move.
The recipe her roommate found on the internet was an attempt to sidestep South Korea’s 65-year ban on abortions, but in the end it did not work and Kim, a 21-year-old student at the time, was forced to go to a clinic a week later for an illegal surgical procedure.
“Deciding to have an abortion was already a difficult decision, but for me at the time it was the right one,” said Kim, who like the other women interviewed for this story asked to use a pseudonym for fear of legal repercussions. “After I made that choice, all the law did was add to my trauma.”
The fight to legalise abortion has become the latest battlefield in growing feminist movement in South Korea. Supporters of a repeal of the ban were gearing up for a victory at South Korea’s constitutional court, in a case brought by a doctor who was prosecuted for performing 70 abortions, before political infighting over the appointment of justices paralysed deliberations and delayed the verdict indefinitely.
A recent protest in the heart of Seoul drew 3,000 women, but in a sign of how sensitive the issue remains, almost all the participants wore black surgical masks to hide their identity and organisers worked to censor any photos taken by curious citizens that could identify individuals.
South Korea remains one of the few wealthy nations where abortion is illegal, criminalised under a 1953 law that has been selectively enforced over its history based on government whims. The ban was relaxed in 1973 for rape victims and couples with certain hereditary diseases.
“People’s sexual behaviour and relationships have changed quite a bit and this law is denying the changes that have happened in society,” said Lee Bong-joo, dean of the college of social science at Seoul National University.
