LIFE DIGEST: Korean doctors confess, seek to end illegal abortions
- Jan 19, 2010 -
Some of South Korea’s doctors have asked for forgiveness for performing illegal abortions for years and are working to cut the number of the procedures done in the Asian country.
Choi Anna and Shim Sang-duk, doctors at a Seoul clinic, are helping lead a movement of South Korean obstetricians who have rejected abortion. The group is urging other doctors to confess whether they have performed illegal abortions and intends this month to begin reporting the providers of such abortions to law enforcement officials, according to The New York Times.
Also in this edition: Sex-selection abortion producing huge Chinese gender gap and Russian population grows, but abortion still problem.
Choi and Shim’s practice, Ion Women’s Clinic, performed 30 abortions a month, twice the number of babies it delivered, before stopping in September, The Times reported Jan. 6. Almost all were illegal.
In an interview with the human dignity website Mercatornet.com, Shim said he performed about 4,000 abortions in two decades.
“We sold our soul for money,” Choi said, according to The Times. “Abortion was an easy way to make money.”
In November, they and dozens of other doctors held a new conference in which they sought “forgiveness,” the newspaper reported. Shim told Mercatornet.com he had “suffered pangs of conscience for a long while.”
In addition to calling on obstetricians to stop performing abortions, Shim and Choi have helped establish another organization, Pro-life Doctors. It seeks to convince women not to have abortions and operates a phone line for the reporting of clinics that perform the procedures illegally, according to The Times.
“The goal of our movement is a Korea without abortions,” Shim told Mercatornet.com. “To be more specific, our immediate goal is to reduce the number of abortions to 100,000 cases within 10 years – one-third of what it is today – and to eliminate all forms of abortion except when necessary to save the life of an expectant mother.”
South Korean prohibits abortion except when the mother’s health is seriously threatened or in cases of severe genetic problems, rape or incest, according to The Times. Abortion is always illegal beyond 24 weeks into a pregnancy. Researchers have estimated only about four percent of the approximately 340,000 abortions in 2005 were performed for legal reasons, The Times reported.
A government-set limitation on doctors’ fees is believed to have prompted doctors to perform illegal abortions to make more money, according to The Times.
Sex-selection abortion producing huge Chinese gender gap
It appears likely more than 24 million Chinese men of marrying age will be unable to find wives in the year 2020, partly because of the frequency of sex-selection abortions.
A government-backed study issued Jan. 11 showed the huge imbalance in the sexes, which it described as the country’s most significant demographic problem. China is the world’s most populous country, with about 1.3 billion people.
China has enforced population control – commonly referred to as a one-child policy — since 1979. Its policy generally limits couples in urban areas to one child and those in rural areas to two, if the first is a girl. Parents in cities may have second babies if the husband and wife are both only children.
The coercive policy and the availability of ultrasound technology have resulted in many couples choosing abortion when they learn the wife is pregnant with a female child. Many couples desire male babies, so they can be supported financially by their sons as they age.
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said in its report, “Sex-specific abortions remained extremely commonplace, especially in rural areas,” according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). AFP’s article was based on a report by the Global Times, a newspaper operated by the Chinese government.
The study said the primary contributing factors to the imbalance included the population control program and an inadequate social security system.
The lack of women is already causing major social upheaval in some parts of China. The kidnapping and trafficking of women is “rampant” in regions with an excess of men, according to AFP. Forced prostitution and illegal marriages also are issues in those areas.
Penalties for violations of the population control policy have included fines, arrests and the destruction of homes, as well as forced abortion and sterilization. Infanticide, especially of females, also has been reported.
Russian population grows, but abortion still problem
Russia recorded its first population increase in 14 years in 2009, but it is still plagued by an abortion rate than rivals its birth rate.
Last year, Russia reported 1.7 million births but 1.2 million abortions, according to Reuters News Service. Russian Health Minister Tatyana Golikova said Jan. 19 the country was attempting to reduce the number of abortions.
In announcing a population increase of between 15,000 and 25,000 last year, Golikova pointed to a four percent decrease in the death rate and an inflow of immigrants as reasons for the change, Reuters reported.
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission works to protect the sanctity of human life. If you would like to learn more about this issue, additional resources are available here. Our free, downloadable Impact resource is also available online. If your church is interested in purchasing materials on the sanctity of human life, please visit our online bookstore and erlc.com.
Further Learning
Learn more about: Life, Abortion, Birth Control, Issues,