S Korean bishops discuss abortion law with lawmakers

Bishop Moon of Cheju, chairman of the Bishops' Conference's Committee for Family and Life, met with Democratic Party lawmakers who are promoting a bill that the Church sees as a path towards unlimited abortions. The issue came to the fore in 2019 after a ruling by the Constitutional Court. For Bishop, “We must move towards respect for life.”

Seoul (AsiaNews) – The Catholic Church in South Korea has been actively defending unborn life in recent weeks, part of an ongoing debate over the country’s abortion law.

A group of lawmakers from the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK)), President Lee Jae-myung's party, has submitted an amendment to the Mother and Child Health Law to the National Assembly.

The amendment, which is meant to introduce a regulatory framework for this sensitive issue, follows a 2019 ruling by South Korea's Constitutional Court that declared as unconstitutional the 1953 law that defined abortion as a criminal offence.

The Court gave parliament 12 months to legislate on the matter, but it has failed to do so. Hence, as of 1 January 2021, abortion is no longer recognised as a crime, but it remains a procedure not covered by the national health service.

Now, the DPK, which holds the majority in the National Assembly, would like to pass an amendment to define the matter in law; but the Catholic Church – along with many South Korean doctors – is concerned about the specific nature of the bill.

It objects to the use of the term "termination of pregnancy" instead of "abortion," fears that the national health service's coverage will promote unlimited access to abortion, and is also deeply worried about the possible use of abortifacient drugs such as the so-called morning-after pill.

The debate is particularly significant in a country like South Korea, which has long been grappling with demographic winter, a major issue, despite a small bump in births in the past year.

The South Korean Catholic weekly Catholic Times reported that, on Friday, Bishop Moon Chang-woo of Cheju, chairman of the Bishops' Conference's Committee for Family and Life, met with DPK lawmakers Nam In-soon and Lee Su-jin, who are among the sponsors of the amendment, along with other priests and several lawyers. The prelate had already met in August with Park Joo-min, president of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee.

Friday’s meeting, which was held behind closed doors, lasted about an hour. Bishop Moon Chang-woo presented the parliamentarians with the statement in which the Bishops' Conference expressed its opposition to the amendment.

“We must move towards respect for life, create conditions that give women peace of mind during pregnancy and childbirth, and improve social awareness regarding single mothers,” Bishop Moon said, emphasising that “in the legislative process, it is essential to build social consensus, as required by the Constitutional Court when it declared the bill unconstitutional.”

The lawmakers responded by saying that unlimited access to abortion and the use of medical abortion are not among the amendment's objectives. They also noted that they have no intention of allowing unconditional access and that they will seek the opinions of experts in the matter, taking into account international trends.

For his part, Jeong Jae-woo, dean of the School of Life Sciences at the Catholic University of Korea, also present at the meeting, said: “We have expressed our position on the anti-life aspects that concern us. I consider it significant that we raised these concerns directly with the bill's sponsors.”

Bang Seon-young, a lawyer, spoke on the matter as well. “I stressed,” he said, “that before discussing women's right to abortion, we must address the social causes that lead to abortion, and that systems and support must be put in place so that people choose to give birth and raise children rather than abort.”

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• south korea
• abortion
• constitutional court
• amendment
• catholic church
• democratic party
• discussions