Despite a legal change, mifepristone remains inaccessible, leaving little option but to an immunosuppressant that takes weeks to work.
July 31, 2026
More than five years after the Constitutional Court of Korea ruled the country's abortion ban unconstitutional, legislation governing abortion remains stalled, leaving women who cannot legally obtain mifepristone, best known as the "abortion pill," to turn to less certain alternatives for terminating pregnancies.
One such alternative is methotrexate (MTX), an immunosuppressant typically used for cancer therapy.
“I learned about medical abortion while searching online communities, and received an MTX injection, but the pregnancy has not yet been completely terminated," said Choi, a woman in her 30s who received the MTX shot on July 14 to terminate her pregnancy at four weeks.
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