Murky abortion legislation leads to rise in illegal, unregulated pills
Forty-one pieces of legislation remain unchanged despite the Constitutional Court ruling them unconstitutional or in need of reforms, according to the National Assembly Secretariat.
Among those, 19 had been given a grace period for amendment as of January. This period is deemed necessary as banning the legislation immediately would have a critical impact on society.
Of those 19, three have already passed the deadline that the constitutional court set for amendments.
The most controversial is the legislation on abortion.
The Constitutional Court in April 2019 adjudicated a discordance on Article 269 and 270 of the Criminal Act and ordered changes to the legislations by the end of 2020.
Among the nine judges, three were in favor of immediate abolishment of the legislation that deems abortion a crime. Two ruled that the legislation was constitutional, while the remaining four agreed that penalizing abortion was unconstitutional but ruled that a grace period was needed.
As such abortion was still illegal until the end of 2020.
Under the Criminal Act Article 269 paragraph 1, a person who commits “miscarriage” including through the use of drugs will face a maximum of one year in prison or a maximum fine of 2 million won ($1,500). This law had been upheld for more than six decades.
Article 270 paragraph 1 penalizes the doctor who performs an abortion with a maximum prison sentence of two years.
The punitive regulations lost effect from 2021.
However, this does not mean that abortion is now legal as the Constitutional Court only ruled on the first paragraphs of both articles.
As other paragraphs remain unchanged, the penalties against abortion procedures have become ambiguous.
The second paragraph of Article 2 stipulates “the provision of paragraph (1) shall apply to a person who procures the miscarriage of a female upon her request or with her consent,” while the third paragraph states “A person who in consequence of the commission of the crime as referred to in paragraph 2, causes the injury of a woman, shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than three years.
If a woman dies during an abortion, the person who conducted the procedure could face up to seven years in prison.
Further complications arise due to exceptions on legal abortion under the Mother and Child Health Act.
Under this act, abortion is deemed legal when either parent has a genetic defect; either parent has an infectious disease; the woman became pregnant due to rape; became pregnant by a family member or the mother faces serious health risks.
Despite the court giving legislators over two years to make amendments, ambiguity remains.
While legislators have been reluctant to make changes, abortion has increased by 38 percent since 2019.
With legal repercussions unclear, pregnant women are taking matters into their own hands, in particular by procuring abortion pills that are acquired unsupervised and through illegal routes.
Studies show that these drugs are purchased in particular by young women aged 18 or younger. They turn to the internet to find these pills.
Most of the transactions are made through one-on-one chats with the provider and mailed to purchasers after wire payments.
A seller of these pills that the JoongAng Ilbo, an affiliate of the Korea JoongAng Daily, contacted through an online chat stressed that the abortion pills are still illegal in Korea but that they are not dangerous.
“Because they are pills you can swallow, it is much safer and more convenient than getting a surgery,” the seller said.
The pill the person was selling was Mifegyne, which is made of Mifepristone and Misoprostol. It was being sold for 360,000 won for women that are seven weeks pregnant and that price increased to 450,000 won for women that are eight weeks pregnant.
The dose needs to be increased the further along a woman is in pregnancy, hence the price increase.
The seller said if payment is made before 4 p.m., they will send the package the following day and it should arrive within two to three days depending on where the person is located.
“The pills can’t be sold at drug stores as they are blocked at customs, even if you want to officially import them,” the seller said. “Yet it is a pill that many ask for.”
Pharmacist Park Han-seul had a different take about the safety of these pills and warned against their use.
“Many risks come with the illegal distribution of drugs without doctors’ prescription,” Park said. “One should not take illegal abortion drugs because they don’t know what the actual pill is and even if it is real, there could be side effects.”
Some of these drugs are sold on illegal websites disguised as internet pharmacies.
One had posted several reviews to attract buyers while a person claiming to be a pharmacist explains Mifegyne in a video, stressing that it is a product that is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The self-proclaimed pharmacist promises customers’ safety and guarantees confidentiality.
There are also overseas websites that assume the identity of philanthropic organizations. As people located in Korea are denied access to such websites, buyers must use virtual private networks.
These websites claim the pills they are selling have a success rate of 98 percent and that several hundreds of women had used them without any issues.
While the drug Mifegyne is approved for use in numerous countries, it has yet to gain approval for import by the government.
Therefore, it is either smuggled into Korea or fake pills are sold.
These fake pills are particularly dangerous.
In June last year customs at Incheon International Airport identified six people who were smuggling abortion pills into Korea from China but claiming they were imported from the U.S. when selling them.
The six smuggled in a total of 57,000 abortion pills. A set of nine sells for 90,000 won but after switching the packaging to that from the U.S., the dealers upped the price to 360,000 won.
“It is believed that in Korea, 1 million abortion pills are consumed annually,” said Kim Jae-yeon, chairman of the Korean Association of Obstetrician and Gynecologists. “In Korea abortion has become unregulated,” Kim said.
Kim said that even if these drugs are legalized, women could still lean toward illegal routes out of fear of their medical records making note of their use of the pills, as they would likely require a prescription from a doctor.
“It seems there is a huge demand for Mifegyne and the illegal distribution is becoming larger and more cunning,” said a pharmacist, who requested anonymity. “I made a report to the authorities but as many are overseas websites, the health authorities told me that they have no jurisdiction to impose administrative measures.”
“It’s not just the lawmakers doing nothing, it’s also the government,” the pharmacist said.
Last year the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs conducted a field study on non-surgical abortion.
The study found that 46.9 percent of women that got an abortion acquired information through the internet while 40.3 percent consulted a physician.
The average age of women that got abortion decreased from 28.4 years in 2018 to 27 years old.
More than half were women said they were single and 7.7 percent said they used illegal drugs.
The study was conducted on women aged between 15 and 44.
“We’re in a state of lawlessness as the rights of pregnant women to make her own decisions versus a fetus’ rights to life clash while the National Assembly remains idle,” said Seung Jae-hyun, a researcher at the Korean Institute of Criminology and Justice. “We need to create a committee where the issues regarding the abortion law are discussed publicly.”
The 2019 ruling was interpreted as the court’s order for legislators to find a middle ground on abortion but lawmakers still remain reluctant to ahead with legislative reforms.
Seung, the Korean Institute of Criminology and Justice researcher, said one of the main reason that legislators are lagging is because they have to make their stance on abortion known through their votes.
The issue of abortion has been controversial not only between liberals and the conservatives but also between religious groups and women rights’ advocates.
“Recently there have been media reports about teenagers’ sexual activities at so-called ‘room cafes’ that they frequently visit,” said Seung. “As such, abortion is becoming a serious issue.”
The researcher said it is time for the legislators to start working on creating public consensus.
“Political parties should stop fighting among themselves and truly start to work together,” Seung said.
The Justice Ministry in November 2020 submitted a reform bill on abortion. The bill proposes making abortion legal for woman who are up to 14 weeks pregnant. However, for those in certain situations, such as those who have been raped, abortion should be allowed up to 24 weeks.
This bill has yet to be reviewed by the National Assembly’s committee.
BY YOON SEOK-MAN, LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongangco.kr]