By Lee Tae-hoon
Staff Reporter
Doctors who have been repeatedly reported for performing illegal abortions will lose their footing in the medical community.
Those who have been caught three times will be expelled from the Korean Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (KAOG), a senior KAOG official said Tuesday.
``The association has recently revised its code of ethics in an effort to eradicate illegal abortion practices through monitoring,'' Jang Seok-il, vice president of the KAOG, said. ``Those caught three times will be stripped of membership.''
The announcement came at a time when the effectiveness of the association's regulations, which called for reporting three-time offenders to the authorities, has been questioned.
The association has yet to report any of its members to the local authorities for conducting illegal abortions
``Expulsion means that they will no longer be qualified to work with fellow doctors as obstetricians,'' Jang said.
Under the law, abortion is strictly restricted except for pregnancy by rape, incest, grave health risks, dangerous contagious diseases and serious genetic defects.
Illegal abortions can be punished by up to two years imprisonment for the doctor and a maximum of a one year prison term or a fine of 2 million won ($1,743) for the patient.
Experts say illicit abortions have been commonly performed here because the government has turned a blind eye to the issue, and due to an increasing number of women who do not want to have children for social and economic reasons.
The number of people who faced trial for allegedly being involved in illegal abortions was one in 2005, five in 2006, four in 2007 and five in 2008, according to Rep. Jang Yoon-seok of the governing Grand National Party.
Roughly 350,000 abortions are carried out each year, according to the Ministry for Health, Health, Welfare and Family Affairs.
Some doctors suspect the actual number of abortions might be a few times greater than the official figure.
The ministry's 2005 report found that only 4.4 percent of the abortions had been lawfully carried out.