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Staff Reporter
A lawmaker Wednesday called on the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs to take a close look at the country's high abortion rates to come up with a realistic solution to falling birth rates.
Rep. Park Sun-young of the minor Liberty Forward Party (LFP) told The Korea Times that allowing pregnant women to give birth anonymously will help slow down the falling rates, saying the ministry's spending-oriented work and family policy alone was not effective enough to stop the trend.
France, a European country with high birth rates, introduced anonymous birth, under which pregnant women can visit a hospital, register anonymously, give birth and leave.
Park returned to Seoul earlier this week after wrapping up a study tour to France and Sweden to look into best practices in work and family policy there, along with other members of the National Assembly Special Committee on Fertility and Aging.
Park, who serves as an LFP spokeswoman, spearheaded the bill aimed to reduce abortions by allowing pregnant women to have the right to give birth anonymously, stressing it would help boost birth rates if adopted.
According to the ministry, approximately 30 out of 1,000 women aged between 15 and 44 had abortions in 2005, indicating Korea, along with Russia and Vietnam, is one of the top three countries conducting abortions in the world.
An empirical study led by Professor Kim Hae-jong of Korea University's College of Medicine found that the number of abortions was 342,233 in 2005, equal to 78 percent of the 438,012 babies born that year.
Park submitted to the National Assembly last year the preventive measure for abortions, which was co-signed by 21 lawmakers of the governing Grand National Party, the main opposition Democratic Party and the LFT.
Under the proposed scheme, pregnant women who express their willingness to carry to term and give birth anonymously are considered as giving up the custody of their babies. Social workers will link the babies to families looking to adopt.
Asked about the status of the bill, the legislator said it is ``sleeping'' in the committee, lamenting that committee members seemed not to be fully aware of the consequences of low birth rates.
Regarding the question of why there are few signs of rising birth rates even after a set of supportive family policies were unveiled, Park said laws are set in place but the problem is the absence of institution building.
``Male workers can take leave from work when their wives deliver babies, but only 1 percent of them actually take advantage of the benefit, reflecting people's belief that women are mainly responsible for their children and there are few roles that the government can play in raising children,'' she said.
The National Statistical Office announced last month that the nation's total birth rate, referring to the number of children born per woman aged 15 to 49, dropped to 1.19 last year.
The figure indicates that Korea has one of the lowest fertility rates among member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
hkang@koreatimes.co.kr
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