Supreme Court, first’innocent’ in obstetrics and gynecology for abortion

First ruling according to the constitutional’constitutional abortion crime’

In accordance with the Constitutional Court’s decision to unconstitutional abortion, the Supreme Court convicted an obstetrician who performed an abortion. This is the first time that the court has convicted abortion on the basis of the constitutional judgment.

The second division of the Supreme Court (Presiding Judge Noh Jeong-hee) announced on the 12th that it had violated the court case sentenced for suspension of sentence in the appeal of A, a gynecologist accused of abortion on the job, and tried to destroy it as innocent. Destruction means that the judgment of the appeals court reverses the judgment of the lower court and directly decides the case without returning it to the lower court.

In September 2013, Mr. A had been tried for an abortion at the request of a single mother, Mr. B. At that time, it was investigated that Mr. B visited A’s hospital after being introduced by a broker who arranged for abortion surgery. The first and second trials did not accept Mr. A’s claim that he had performed an abortion for reasons of Mr. B’s health and convicted him. However, considering the fact that Mr. B’s health was not really good and Mr. A was reflecting on him, the sentence was suspended. Deferral of sentence is a judgment in which the sentence is delayed due to the low degree of crime, and the sentence is not sent after a certain period of time.

However, after the second trial was over, the Constitutional Court decided it was unconstitutional on the crime of abortion, and the Supreme Court ex officio condemned Mr. A. The judge ruled that “a clause that has been determined to be unconstitutional must be acquitted because it is retroactively invalidated.”

In April 2019, the Constitution found that the provisions for abortion were unconstitutional and decided against the constitution. In order to prevent confusion caused by the legal gap, the abortion crime was temporarily maintained with an alternative legislative deadline until the end of last year. However, the government and the National Assembly could not complete the legislation within the amended deadline, and the abortion provision was abolished this year without alternative legislation.

However, there is still no follow-up action, leading to confusion. With the abolition of abortion crimes, abortion surgery has become legal in nature, but there is no system to support it systematically. The women’s world is demanding rapid acceptance of artificial pregnancy cessation drugs, health insurance coverage for pregnancy cessation surgery, and reorganization of the medical system and medical education system for safe pregnancy cessation.

/ Reporter Juhee Yoo [email protected]