South Korea’s Catholic bishops have warned that the proposed amendment to the country’s abortion law undermines the right to life and risks reducing abortion to a “routine medical procedure.”
The statement, issued by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea (CBCK), came in response to a bill filed by Representative Nam In-soon of the Democratic Party seeking to revise the “maternal and child health law.”
The bishops criticized the proposed change in language that would replace the term “artificial intervention for abortion” with “artificial termination of pregnancy.”
They said the rewording “obscures the very nature of life, diminishes its value, and compromises the ethical perception of abortion.”
“This rhetorical shift transforms abortion from a ‘decision to terminate’ to a ‘therapeutic decision,’ potentially leading to a dangerous cultural shift that reduces abortion to a mere ‘routine medical procedure,’” the bishops said.
The bill also seeks to legalize “all forms of abortion, whether pharmacological or surgical.” The bishops warned this could cause a sharp rise in abortion rates and pose new risks to women’s physical and mental health.
They also expressed concern over the bill’s proposal to include abortion in the national health insurance system, arguing that “the government is attempting to create a system in which abortions are publicly funded.”
“This measure fundamentally undermines the state’s duty to protect the right to life,” they said.
The bishops called the proposed legislation a “direct violation of Article 10 of the Constitution,” which guarantees human dignity and the right to life. While acknowledging that “a woman’s right to self-determination must be respected,” they emphasized that “this right must not override the fetus’s right to life.”
They urged lawmakers to enact policies that uphold both women’s rights and the rights of the unborn, and called for support systems “that ensure pregnancy and childbirth do not become a burden for women.”
Women and their unborn children should not be treated as “opposing beings,” the bishops said. “This is the path our society must take toward the true common good. Protecting a life essentially means protecting the dignity of the entire community.”
