South Korea Looks at Legalizing Abortion

South Korea Looks at Legalizing Abortion: South Korea's Mother and Child Health Law permits abortion only when the mother's health is in serious danger, or in cases of rape, incest or severe genetic disorder. Abortion is illegal after 24 weeks of pregnancy and technically punishable by the Korean Penal Code. The government has for decades, however, turned a blind eye to the flourishing illegal abortion trade, with the result that South Korea already has one of the highest abortion rates in the world.

Official data from the Ministry of Health indicates that doctors perform about 350,000 abortions per year, while they deliver on average just 450,000 babies, meaning 43.7 percent of pregnancies end in abortion. The actual number of abortions may be at least five times the official estimate, with a spokesman from the ruling Grand National Party saying that a National Assembly inspection last October found that the number of illegal abortions in Korea exceeds 1.5 million a year or roughly 4,000 babies aborted per day. South Korea's total fertility rate is now estimated at 1.19 children per woman, one of the lowest in the world.

Editor: It's shocking and sad that S. Korea's figures match what once was the U.S. abortion rate, and is now higher than ours!