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Should abortion be legalized? Constitutional court to decide on decades-long law criminalizing abortion

2019-04-09 2 Dailymotion

The debate over whether abortion should be legal is a controversial issue all over the world.<br />In Korea,.. the practice has been illegal since the mid-20th century.<br />However, there's a chance that the Constitutional Court might overturn the country's anti-abortion law this week.<br />Oh Soo-young has the details. <br />South Korea's Constitutional Court will make a landmark ruling this week on whether women should have the right to end their pregnancies.<br />The nine-member panel will deliver its verdict on Thursday,... regarding the 1953 law criminalising women and medical workers who carry out abortions.<br />Abortion is currently illegal in Korea, under the Criminal Act which imposes a maximum fine of 2 million won or a year in prison for intentional miscarriages.<br />Physicians are permitted to carry out abortions,... only in the case of rape or incest,... or if the pregnancy could jeopardise the mother or baby's health. <br />However, abortion is believed to be widely practiced behind closed doors in Korea. One in five women who experienced pregnancy last year were found to have terminated their pregnancies,... according to a survey last September and October by the state-run Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs.<br />Most of the terminations are carried out in medical clinics... but a growing number of women are also acquiring abortion pills illegally from abroad.<br />This has generated concern about the health and safety of such procedures,... on top of the ongoing ethical debate over a woman's right to choose and the sanctity of life.<br />The issue was previously raised at the Constitutional Court in 2012,... with the judges ruling that the anti-abortion law was constitutional,... recognising a fetus as a separate entity with the right to life.<br />However,... many in legal circles expect the panel of judges to deliver the opposite verdict this time around,... given the continued calls to repeal the anti-abortion law.<br />Six out of nine judges must rule against the law to declare it unconstitutional.<br />Oh Soo-young, Arirang News. <br />

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