By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
A group of young obstetricians and gynecologists have vowed to refrain from performing illegal abortions, promising to clean up their profession and bring a good name back to their occupation.
Under fire for performing 1.5 million abortions yearly, the Korean Gynecological Physicians' Association, a group of about 700 doctors in their 30s and 40s, said they will report such irregularities to the police from next year.
Anna Choi, the spokeswoman for the group, said, "We aim at doing away with illegal abortion procedures. Doctors should be busy in labor rooms, not at abortion tables."
The doctors also stated the government should share responsibility and work on making a wider variety of contraceptives available.
"For a very long time, the government has campaigned for birth control based on women's menstruation periods. The authorities should come up with ways to recommend more effective methods," they said.
The doctors' call for a self-cleanup effort came as Rep. Chang Yoon-seok of the ruling Grand National Party revealed during a National Assembly inspection that the number of illegal abortions exceed 1.5 million a year, but less than five doctors were indicted for them.
Chang's figure is far higher than the 340,000 illegal abortions estimated by the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs.
The higher figure could easily be the highest in the world, the lawmaker claimed.
Chang said, "The most important thing will be for the doctors to understand that abortion is a serious crime," he said.
Currently, abortion is allowed under very limited circumstances.
These include pregnancies through incest or rape and critical threats to the mother's life. The procedure is allowed only during the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.
Healthy women who undergo elective abortions face up to one year in prison or a fine of two million won. Doctors performing the abortion may be subjected to up to two years behind bars.
According to the National Health Insurance Corporation, the number of obstetrical clinics fell sharply from 1,907 in 2005 to 1,669 in 2008. Many experts point to the low birthrate as the cause for the decrease but others say it is related to procedural difficulties and the possibility of litigation.
The Korean Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists estimates only 66 percent of the clinics can deal with childbirth.