History of abortion in South Korea

Introduction

Abortion is an artificial removal of a fetus to halt a pregnancy through discharge out of the woman’s uterus prior to natural birth. Abortion mainly has two types: an induced abortion which is a deliberate abortion with a medical procedure and a natural miscarriage which occurs when lacks any interventions before the childbirth. Although there are no official government documents about abortion in South Korea, some research papers provide evidence that abortion commonly happened in the past. Moreover, abortion is ongoing issue to keep it as a criminality or to legalise it.

History of Abortion in South Korea

Prior to 20th Century

There is no historical records about abortion in the old Korea: Three kingdoms, Unified Silla, and Koryo. In Choson dynasty (1392-1897), there is a few records about the law which an induced abortion was not sentenced for women. The court punished only a person who deliberately make a woman to abort. Under the national religion, Confucianism, abortion was believed to not happen following a notion about life's worth. In addition, a fecundity was treated as a symbol of abundance of the family to increase labour force.

The Era Under the Colonial Administration of Imperial Japan (1910-1945)

70s poster: "The path to a Gross National Income of $1000 in 1981; Sons or daughters, let’s have two children and raise them well"

The Japanese colonization significantly influenced a change in the notion of fecundity from abundance of the family to a national campaign for survival of the state. Japanese government stressed reproduction as a national issue to secure the state's military power. Under the goal of one notion, the survival of the fittest (優勝劣敗), Korean reproduction policy aimed to block invasion of other imperialist nations through a proliferation of the population. Therefore, the Korean government officially outlawed abortion, in which if a pregnant woman aborts by drugs or otherwise, she would be sentenced for less than one year. People who assisted would be also sentenced for less than two years, but more than 3 years if the woman dies.

Abortion After the Colonization (1960s)

35 years of Japanese exploitation of Korea and Korean civil war destroyed most infrastructures and economic systems in South Korea. Although these circumstances could not provide safe environments for women to have a childbirth, the Korean government enacted criminality of abortion for pro-life perspective in 1953. However, the effectiveness of the law was doubted during the period of a post-war generation which the population explosively expanded. For instance, Sinchon-dong which is a part of Seoul, 163 out of 472 married women aborted more than one time in 1961. Moreover, the graduate school of public health in Seoul University provided a statistic that 33.2% of 1058 married women visited a hospital to take an induced abortion in 1963. These statistics could indicate that the prohibition of the law did not effectively regulate abortion in the 60s.

80s poster: "Two children are many too!"

Industrial Period and The Prevalence of Abortion (1970s - 1980s)

The Korean government had a concern on the rapid increase in the population between the 70s and 80s. The population had annually increased one million in each year of the 70s. There was the 54.2% of increase in the population from 25.01 to 38.12 million between the 60s and 80s. With a theory of Malthusian Trap, the Korean government actively carried out campaigns to lower a speed of the increase of the population aiming for 1% birth rate. The government displayed humorous posters with various slogans, such as "Have only one child and become happy". It also offered benefits for family who has less than two children for insurances and receiving subsidies. The government rather imposed disadvantages on the family who has more than three children following higher taxes. However, this national policy structurally had a problem that a notion of preference of son prevailed the Korean society. As a result of the population policy, rates of abortion considerably increase over time: 26% in 1971, 30% in 1973, 39% in 1976, 48% in 1985, and 53% in 1985. This increase was rooted from the Confucianist idea that a male should be a head of the family. Although Korea was undergoing modernization and industrialization, the male preference remained in Koreans in a form of patriarchal society in the 70s and 80s. The limited capacity of having children and prohibition of abortion led Koreans to abort unborn girls until they got one son at least. The government succeeded to achieve its goal to decrease the birth rate through the posters and policy, but also caused another social issue.

The Gender Imbalance (1990s)

90s poster: "Mr. teacher! Will I sit with girls if I do a good job?"

The deep-rooted notion of son preference, which resulted in higher rates of abortion of unborn daughters, brought a serious consequence of gender imbalance. The Korean sex ratio was 116.5 males per 100 females in 1990. The ratio is also evidence of female infanticide which prevailed in the 70s and 80s through illegal and secrete abortion. The government ceased the previous policy to encourage more childbirth and fix the gender imbalance. The government also created new poster to eliminate a male preference, and raised an intensity of punishment for abortion in order to increase the birth rate.

Controversy of Abortion (After 90s)

In the present day, abortion is definitely a criminal act according to Korean criminal law, Article 269 (Abortion). “(1) A woman who procures her own miscarriage through the use of drugs or other means shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than one year or by a fine not exceeding two million won. <Amended by Act No. 5057, Dec. 29, 1995>”. Even though there is a long period of the prohibition, Koreans show opinions both for and against abortion now. In April 2019, there was a movement to abolish a criminality of abortion based on pro-choice perspective. If the National Assembly does not provide alternative legislation on the criminality of abortion by next year, the criminality of abortion will no longer take effect on January 1, 2021.