20s Sentenced for Putting Newborn, Born Prematurely After Taking Abortion Pills, into Toilet Causing Death

Published 08 Oct.2020 16:57(KST)

Court: "Taking young lives... the crime is serious"

Daejeon Court Complex. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-ju] A woman who killed her newborn baby by placing the child in a toilet immediately after delivery and then abandoning the body was sentenced to prison by the court.

According to the legal community on the 8th, the Daejeon District Court Criminal Division 4 (Judge Lee Heon-sook) recently sentenced Ms. A, who was charged with infanticide and corpse abandonment, to 1 year and 6 months in prison and ordered a 5-year ban on operating, working for, or providing labor to child-related institutions.

Ms. A, in her 20s, became unintentionally pregnant after having sexual intercourse with a man in the Gyeonggi-do area around June last year.

Ms. A only realized she was pregnant in January and, after hearing from an obstetrician that she could not undergo an abortion surgery, purchased abortion pills from an illegal website on the internet and took them.

About a week after taking the pills, Ms. A experienced abdominal pain and gave birth to the baby in her home bathroom. The baby was alive at the time of delivery.

However, it was reported that Ms. A, after exchanging text messages with a person involved in the abortion pill sales site, drowned the baby in the toilet water, causing the baby’s death.

This occurred about 20 minutes after the birth. Ms. A then placed the infant’s body in a shoebox and buried it underground to abandon it.

The court stated, "Although it can be seen that the crime was committed following the advice of an illegal abortion pill seller after an unexpected birth, the biological mother, who should be the absolute protector, took the young life of the baby without any protective ability and abandoned the body, which is a grave offense."