Korean women seek right to abortion| Cathnews India

Published Date: March 9, 2010

Tags: abortion rights, Church in Korea, women's rights

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Women activists rallying in support for the right of women to have abortions

Women’s groups’ demand in South Korea that the government guarantee the right of women to abortion has been opposed by Catholics, although some expressed sympathy with the groups’ stand on women’s rights.

“The life of a fetus must be respected. But I am very critical of the fact that the government and society regard women as mere instruments for producing babies,” Sister Gratia Kim Sook-hee, secretary of the bishop’s conferences’ Committee for Women, said.

“Our Church places so much emphasis on issues such as the life of the unborn, but has kept relatively silent on gender inequality in Church and society. This is a great irony,” she said.

Korean Womenlink, Korea Women’s Hot Line and 22 other women’s groups issued a statement saying women have the right to conceive, give birth or abort a baby.

“The government must guarantee women’s rights to decide what to do regarding their own bodies,” said the statement, timed to come out for International Women’s Day, March 8

Father Casimir Song Yul-sup, secretary of the Life 31 Movement of the Korean bishops’ conference, rejected the statement saying that “women’s rights cannot take precedence over the baby’s right to live.”

“Since a fetus is a human being, parents do not have the right to remove it,” he stressed.

In their statement, the women’s groups also asked that abortions be allowed for “social and economic reasons.”

Under the Mother and Child Health Law, enacted in 1972, termination of a pregnancy is allowed in cases of rape or incest, if the fetus has certain genetic defects or if the mother’s health is in danger.

“I don’t think anybody objects to the need to respect life, including the life of the fetus,” Theodosia Park Young-og, head of the Korean Catholic Women’s Community for a New World (KCWC), told UCA News. However, she added, “If the government and society have the attitude that abortion is illegal, women will always be the victim.”

Church sources say about 1.5 million babies are aborted every year in South Korea.

Meanwhile, on March 8, the Korean Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists issued a statement “actively supporting” the women groups “in light of maternity protection.”

On the same day, the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs also publicized its plan to prevent illegal abortions in the country.

Source: Women’s groups lobby for right to abortion (UCAN)

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