South Korea’s nascent feminist movement turns to abortion ban

South Korea's nascent feminist movement turns to abortion ban
Women have continued to access abortion illegally in defiance of 65-year-old law

Benjamin Haas in Seoul
Sun 11 Nov 2018

Kim 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.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/11/south-koreans-nascent-feminist-movement-turns-to-abortion-ban


Push to End South Korea Abortion Ban Gains Strength, and Signatures

Push to End South Korea Abortion Ban Gains Strength, and Signatures
By MOTOKO RICH
JAN. 13, 2018

SEOUL, South Korea — Lee Na-yeon was 18 years old and in her first semester in college when she discovered, to her dismay, that she was pregnant.

Ms. Lee went to a hospital and had an abortion. But as a graduate of a Catholic high school where she had been shown graphic videos portraying abortion as murder, she felt scared and tormented by guilt. She had also broken the law.

Abortion is illegal in South Korea with just a few exceptions, such as when a woman has been raped or her health is at risk. It is one of just a handful of the world’s richest countries to have such restrictive abortion laws. Women can be sentenced to a year in prison or ordered to pay fines of two million won (about $1,840) for having abortions, while doctors who perform them can get up to two years in prison.

Continued at source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/13/world/asia/south-korea-abortion-ban.html