By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter

An association representing thousands of obstetricians running their own clinics recently issued a statement backing the calls by pro-women rights activists that pregnant women have the exclusive right to determine whether to have an abortion.

This has fueled the ongoing debate in the medical sector over the issue, which was ignited last month after a pro-life doctors' group filed a criminal complaint against their peers at hospitals over illegal terminations.

"It's the exclusive right of women to decide whether to have a baby or to have an abortion," the Korea Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said in the statement. It stressed it's undesirable to put pressure on pregnant women to deliver babies with the social atmosphere and infrastructure for childcare remaining rudimentary.

"We have had no choice but to help pregnant women abort their fetus at our own risk of being punished because it's for the sake of women's health. But we are viewed as a sort of criminal in the media and society," it said.

Dr. Ahn Hyun-ok, secretary general of the association, told The Korea Times that the current policy on abortion should be ultimately amended in such a way as to empower pregnant women to decide whether or not to have the procedure.

She said that it was the first time that her association has made this pro-choice statement rebutting the law, adding that they support the women's right to choose but within the framework of abiding by the law.

Abortion is illegal except for cases such as pregnancy resulting from incest or rape, or if it poses a "grave threat" to the mother's life.

Doctors convicted of breaking the law can face up to two years in prison and women undergoing the procedure can face up to one year in prison or a fine of two million won ($1,760).

But these sanctions fall short of making many doctors ignore the "lucrative" business of termination.

According to a study by the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 2005, a total of 342,433 abortions were conducted nationwide, while 435,031 babies were born in the same year.

But activists claim the reported cases are the tip of the iceberg, estimating that the actual number is around 1.5 to 2 million each year.

"Frankly, abortions are very profitable," a doctor said on the condition of anonymity. The obstetrician closed her clinic in Seoul last December with snowballing debts.

"My consistent refusal to conduct illegal terminations for the past years is to blame for the closure," the doctor said.

She said the current law is out of sync with reality, saying, "As long as abortion remains more profitable than legal treatments for pregnant women, anti-abortion campaigns and initiatives will continue to be ineffective."

pss@koreatimes.co.kr