Should Abortion Be Decriminalized in Korea?

Abstract

The Constitutional Court of Korea is currently tasked with making a decision on the country’s laws concerning abortion, which is one of the most divisive issues in medical ethics. However, as I argue in this article, the key ethical issue at the heart of this case—whether abortion should be decriminalized—need not be divisive at all. To move beyond the polarization this issue generates, the rights-based thinking that plagues so much of the abortion debate should be replaced with a pragmatic approach that attempts to assess the costs and benefits of maintaining the current abortion ban versus those of decriminalizing abortion. Progress can come when the groups that are divided on the abortion issue recognize that they have something in common, which I claim is the goal of reducing the number of abortions. The key question that is prioritized on the approach that I defend is whether the existing ban on abortion is the best or most effective way to reduce the abortion rate in this country. In this article I present evidence to suggest that it is not.