Minbyun "Revival of Abortion Crime... Withdraw Immediately"

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The Lawyers for a Democratic Society (Minbyun) has stated that the government's legislative amendment allowing abortion up to 14 weeks of pregnancy should be immediately withdrawn.

On the 7th, Minbyun issued a statement claiming, "The government proposal effectively reinstates the crime of abortion, infringing on women's right to self-determination and reproductive health rights, making it an unconstitutional and outdated bill."

The government announced a legislative amendment on the same day to maintain the criminalization of abortion under the Criminal Act but allow abortion up to 14 weeks of early pregnancy based on the woman's free will.

Regarding this amendment, Minbyun argued that since the number of weeks of pregnancy can only be estimated and not precisely known, criminal punishment based on this is unconstitutional. They particularly viewed the punishment for abortion after 24 weeks and the allowance of abortion between 14 and 24 weeks only under specific reasons as violations of health rights.

Minbyun pointed out that the government proposal "narrowly interprets the Constitutional Court's decision as 'setting the scope of criminal punishment based on the number of weeks of pregnancy' and chooses a regression to an era of hypocrisy."

On the same day, the Korean Women Lawyers Association also stated, "The 14-week abortion allowance period contradicts the intent of the Constitutional Court's decision" and added that "situations involving abortion conflicts due to social and economic reasons were not included." They explained that since the Constitutional Court set the 'deadline' for abortion allowance at 22 weeks, the period should be extended to 22 weeks instead of 14 weeks.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.