LAGOS, Nigeria(VOICE OF NAIJA)- A landmark court ruling in Seoul has intensified scrutiny of abortion laws in South Korea after two doctors were jailed for murdering a baby delivered at 36 weeks of pregnancy.
On Wednesday, the Seoul Central District Court convicted the unnamed doctors of murder.
The head of the hospital where the abortion was carried out was sentenced to six years in prison and ordered him to pay 1.15 billion won (about $780,000) in restitution, while the physician who carried out the Caesarean section received a four-year sentence.
The infant’s mother, identified by her surname Kwon and reportedly in her late 20s, was found guilty of being an accomplice to murder, and was handed a three-year suspended sentence.
According to local outlet Yonhap News Agency, the court said it considered “the social and economic difficulties women often experience during pregnancy” in determining her sentence.
Public attention first turned to the case in 2024 when Kwon uploaded a YouTube video claiming she had undergone an abortion at 36 weeks, a stage at which most babies are medically considered viable outside the womb. Although the video was quickly deleted, screenshots circulated widely online, triggering a police investigation into the circumstances surrounding the procedure.
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Court proceedings revealed that the doctors arranged to deliver the baby via Caesarean section before placing the newborn in a freezer, resulting in its death.
“The victim died in a cold storage room without ever seeing the light of day or taking a single breath outside. It is difficult to fathom the pain and fear the victim must have faced,” the court said in its verdict, according to Yonhap.
The case has unfolded against the backdrop of South Korea’s evolving abortion laws. Until 2019, the country broadly criminalized abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or serious risk to the mother’s health. However, it changed when the Constitutional Court of Korea ruled that the 1953 abortion ban “goes against the constitution” and ordered lawmakers to revise the law.
The court recommended permitting abortions up to 22 weeks of pregnancy and set a deadline of the end of 2020 for legislative reform. Still, parliamentary gridlock has stalled efforts to pass updated regulations, and although abortion has effectively been decriminalized, no clear statutory framework defines gestational limits, medical standards, or criminal liability in late-term cases, creating uncertainty for patients and healthcare providers alike.
Ultimately, the ruling highlights the gap in South Korea’s abortion laws, particularly for late-term pregnancies, as medical authorities widely regard 36 weeks as near full term. This underscores the need for clear legislation to guide medical practice and protect reproductive rights.
