Abortion pill rollout sparks fierce clash over law, access and fetal rights

Ruling and opposition lawmakers clashed over the government's plan to introduce abortion pills at the National Assembly's audit of the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Wednesday.

A ruling party lawmaker pushed for national health insurance to cover the pills once they are approved, while an opposition lawmaker argued that the law must be rewritten first because abortion deprives a fetus of its basic rights.

The government announced on Sept. 16 that it would introduce abortion pills in the first quarter of next year. Drug-induced abortion will enter the national health care system seven years after the Constitutional Court ruled the criminal ban on abortion unconstitutional in 2019.

"Introducing abortion pills is a meaningful decision by the government and a step forward," Rep. Nam In-soon of the liberal ruling Democratic Party (DP) said.

For the policy to work, more medical institutions beyond obstetrics and gynecology clinics should be able to prescribe the pills, and national health insurance coverage should be considered, Nam said.

"There are 22 cities, counties and districts nationwide without an obstetrics and gynecology clinic, and access to medical care should not vary by region. Measures such as designating [more] medical institutions that can prescribe [the pills] will be needed," Nam said. "I hope [the ministry] does not see health insurance coverage as something that depends only on an application from the drugmaker. The health minister can grant it on the minister's own authority even without one."

Rep. Cho Bae-sook of the conservative main opposition People Power Party (PPP) objected, starting with the Korean term the government uses for the drug.

"Even the term 'stopping a pregnancy' is misleading," Cho said. "It gives the impression that there is nothing wrong with it. Isn’t 'terminating a pregnancy' the right term?"

The legislative gap on abortion left in the Criminal Act and the Mother and Child Health Act should be closed first, and the government has its policy steps in the wrong order, Cho said.

The Constitutional Court's 2019 ruling gave lawmakers until the end of 2020 to rewrite the Criminal Act's abortion ban. They never did, and the ban lapsed in 2021 with no replacement law. The Mother and Child Health Act, which sets out the limited cases in which abortion is allowed, still covers only surgical procedures, not drugs.

"A fetus is protected as a separate person from the moment of fertilization," Cho said. "Abortion strips a living being of its basic rights. Basic rights can be taken away only by a law based on national consensus. The legal issues must be fixed before drug-induced abortion is introduced."

Health Minister Jeong Eun-kyeong defended the order.

"Blind spots where side effects go unmanaged, because of illegal drug purchases and the use of fake drugs, are threatening women's health, which is why the drug came first [ahead of legislation]," Jeong said. "We will build a system to manage the drug's safe use in cooperation with the medical community. On the law, we will take part in [the National Assembly's] revision of the Criminal Act and the Mother and Child Health Act, present the government's views and provide supporting data."

Lawmakers also took up a separate case of a police raid on a pediatric emergency center. Police searched the center, at a hospital in southern Gyeonggi, on Sept. 30 as part of an investigation into the death of a child who had been treated there. Rep. Kim Yoon of the DP said the raid could have a chilling effect on emergency care.

"If medical staff feel pressured by the investigation and even one or two of them resign, it becomes impossible to run the center 365 days a year, and the harm falls squarely on children in southern Gyeonggi," Kim said. "This must not happen again."

Jeong said the ministry had already taken the issue to the police.

"We held a working-level meeting with the National Police Agency yesterday and agreed to draw up guidelines on investigations and search-and-seizure operations that reflect the medical community's position, and the work is underway," Jeong said.

The opposition also protested after its bid to call Kim Yong-beom, former director of national policy at the Blue House, as a witness at the audit of the National Pension Service (NPS) fell through. The PPP sought his testimony regarding why the NPS delayed rebalancing its portfolio during the Kospi’s bull run.

"What the public most wants to know this year is why the rebalancing of the national pension, their retirement money, was put off, and how single-stock leveraged ETFs came to be decided," Rep. Baek Jong-hean of the PPP said. "The former director is not even a public official anymore, so I do not know why [the DP] is blocking [him from being called as a witness]. I express my regret to the DP."

Rep. Kim Tae-ho, also of the PPP, pressed the same point.

"The former director is the one who handled pension policy," Kim Tae-ho said. "We want to ask the driver directly, but the DP keeps honking the horn on his behalf, which is a shame. He may have retired, but he has not retired from responsibility."

The DP pushed back.

"Repeatedly requesting the same person [as a witness] at several standing committees for the same reason makes it hard not to suspect an intent other than questioning policy," Rep. Seo Young-seok of the DP said. "The proper course is to question the health minister, the NPS chairman and the chief investment officer of NPS Investment Management about [the NPS's] investment policy and fund management."

BY JUNG JONG-HOON [[email protected]]