Over 32,000 Artificial Pregnancy Terminations Annually... 15% of Pregnant Women Experience 'Abortion'

Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs Conducts Survey on 8,500 Women of Childbearing Age
8.6% of Sexually Experienced Women Have Had Abortions... Half Are Unmarried or in Their 20s

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] Among women of reproductive age with pregnancy experience, 17.2% have experienced induced abortion. Among women with sexual experience, 8.6% have undergone induced abortion, and the average age at the time of induced abortion was 27.0 years old.

According to the "Induced Abortion Status Survey" released on the 30th by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, the induced abortion rate in 2020 (number of abortions per 1,000 women) was 3.3%, with an estimated 32,063 induced abortions performed. This number was estimated by calculating the abortion rate per 1,000 women based on the number of induced abortions performed in 2020 and applying it to the female population aged 15-44 in 2020.

The induced abortion rate per 1,000 women aged 15-44 in Korea decreased or remained stable with slight fluctuations from 29.8% (342,433 cases) in 2005, to 15.8% (168,738 cases) in 2010, 6.9% (69,609 cases) in 2016, 4.8% (49,764 cases) in 2017, 2.3% (23,175 cases) in 2018, and 2.7% (26,985 cases) in 2019.

The Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs cited the following reasons for the decline in induced abortions: ▲ increased awareness and practice of contraception ▲ decreased average number of induced abortions per woman who has experienced abortion ▲ decrease in the female population aged 15-44.

In fact, the proportion of women who reported being well-informed about contraception increased from 47.0% in 2018 to 53.6% in 2021, while the proportion of women not using contraception at all decreased from 7.3% to 6.6% during the same period. According to the Youth Health Behavior Survey, the contraception practice rate among sexually experienced adolescents rose from 43.6% in 2014 to 59.3% in 2018, and 66.8% in 2020.

The average number of induced abortions experienced by women decreased from 1.43 times in 2018 to 1.04 times in 2021. The female population aged 15-44 also declined from approximately 10.279 million in 2017 to about 9.701 million in 2020, according to resident registration population statistics.

17% of Pregnant Women Undergo Induced Abortion... Over Half Are in Their 20s

Among 8,500 women aged 15-49 who participated in this 2021 survey, 82.6% (7,022) had sexual experience, and 41.4% (3,519) had pregnancy experience. Additionally, 8.6% of sexually experienced women and 17.2% of pregnant women (606 individuals) reported having undergone induced abortion.

In a 2018 survey targeting women aged 15-44, 10.3% of sexually experienced women and 19.9% of pregnant women reported having experienced induced abortion. Limiting the analysis to women aged 15-44 (6,959 individuals), in 2021, 6.6% of sexually experienced women and 15.5% of pregnant women had experienced induced abortion, representing decreases of 3.7 and 4.4 percentage points respectively compared to three years earlier.

The age group with the highest proportion of induced abortions was women in their 20s, accounting for 66.0% of cases. The average age at the time of induced abortion was 27.0 years, lower than the average of 28.4 years reported in the 2018 survey. Regarding marital status at the time of abortion, 50.8% were unmarried, over half of the total, followed by legally married women at 39.9%, common-law or cohabiting at 7.9%, and separated/divorced/widowed at 1.3%.

The main reason for induced abortion was "concern that it would interfere with social activities such as studies or work" (multiple responses allowed), accounting for 35.5%. Other reasons included "difficulty raising a child due to economic conditions (employment instability, low income, etc.)" at 34.0%, and "family planning reasons (not wanting children, spacing children, etc.)" at 29.0%.

The average gestational age at the time of induced abortion was 6.11 weeks for medication abortions and 6.74 weeks for surgical abortions.

Regarding policies related to induced abortion, women aged 15-49 suggested ▲ sex education and contraception education to prevent unwanted pregnancies (24.2%) ▲ strengthening shared responsibility between men and women regarding contraception, pregnancy, and childbirth (21.5%).

About 60% of survey participants were aware of the Constitutional Court's 2019 ruling declaring the criminalization of abortion under the Penal Code unconstitutional. Of these, 50.0% said they "somewhat know" about it, 10.1% said they "know the details well," while 32.5% said they "have heard of it but do not know well," and 7.4% said they "do not know at all."

This survey was conducted online from November 19 to December 6 of last year, targeting 8,500 women aged 15-49, commissioned by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

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