In November, a group of obstetricians in South Korea gathered in front of cameras and the press, to publicly seek forgiveness for providing illegal abortions.
“We sold our soul for money,” said Dr. Choi Ann in a New York Times story. “Abortion was an easy way to make money.”
Abortion is widespread in Korea, despite it being illegal for the most part. Choi’s colleague Dr. Shim Sang-duk said that before they stopped performing abortions, they would abort, on average, around 30 fetuses a month.
Shim and Choi are a part of a group of called Gynob, and are hoping make abortion a topic of public discussion. They also formed another group called Pro-life Doctors, and attempts to discourage women from having abortions, and report on doctors that do provide abortions.
However, the group has been criticized by other doctors, most notably by the Korean Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The association believes that what the group is doing, will force more women out of the country to get abortions, and will put them in even more dangerous and uncertain situations.
“More women will now go abroad for abortion,“ Dr. Baik Eun-jeong said speaking for the association. “Illegal abortions will go deeper underground, causing more medical accidents. There will be more abandoned infants.”
