Abortion law in South Korea: between tradition and democratization

The issue of legal regulation of abortion is one of the main challenges facing modern law. The bioethical problem of abortion has led to the emergence of many legal solutions in the world. Although in South Korea, since 1953, the termination of pregnancy is prohibited, the problem of illegal abortion still occurs. On 22 September 2016, the South Korean Ministry of Health proposed a project to change the legal status, tightening the penalty for terminating pregnancy, also specifying this act as an unethical medical act. The social reaction to the announced regulation of the law was a spontaneous protest – the equivalent of the Polish Black Protest. The Seoul protest took place on October 19, 2016, when hundreds of women went out into the streets of Seoul demonstrating their opposition. The purpose of this paper is to try to answer the question of how the proposed reform of the abortion law improves the social attitudes towards abortion law and the emergence of the “black protest” in South Korea.

The issue of legal regulation of abortion is one of the main challenges facing modern law. The bioethical problem of abortion has led to the emergence of many legal solutions in the world. Although in South Korea, since 1953, the termination of pregnancy is prohibited, the problem of illegal abortion still occurs. On 22 September 2016, the South Korean Ministry of Health proposed a project to change the legal status, tightening the penalty for terminating pregnancy, also specifying this act as an unethical medical act. The social reaction to the announced regulation of the law was a spontaneous protest – the equivalent of the Polish Black Protest. The Seoul protest took place on October 19, 2016, when hundreds of women went out into the streets of Seoul demonstrating their opposition. The purpose of this paper is to try to answer the question of how the proposed reform of the abortion law improves the social attitudes towards abortion law and the emergence of the “black protest” in South Korea.