A South Korean court has convicted a woman and her two doctors of murder for killing the baby she had delivered.
The woman wanted to terminate the pregnancy at 36 weeks – but prosecutors said the baby was born alive and later killed.
The surgeon who operated on her and the director of the hospital were sentenced to four and six years in prison respectively, while the woman received a three-year suspended jail sentence.
The case has gripped South Korea, where abortions are not regulated properly. The procedure was decriminalised in 2019, there is no clear regulation on how far into pregnancy it can be carried out.
The trial against the woman, in her 20s and identified by her surname Kwon, and her doctors marks the first time that murder charges have been pressed against women seeking a late-stage termination of their pregnancy, and the doctors involved in the procedure.
Prosecutors in Kwon’s case said the baby was born alive through a Caesarean section and placed in a freezer until it died.
She argued that she did not know the procedure would be carried out that way.
In 2024, Kwon posted a YouTube video about how she terminated her pregnancy at 36 weeks. The video triggered public uproar and a criminal complaint from the health ministry. Police then launched an investigation into her and her doctor.
Prosecutors said that after the woman’s baby was born alive, the hospital’s director and the surgeon put it into a freezer, where it died.
The hospital staff then falsified Kwon’s medical records to make it look like she had a stillbirth, prosecutors said.
During the trial, the hospital director and surgeon admitted to killing the baby. They were taken into custody immediately after the judge read out the verdict.
The hospital had allegedly received a total of 1.4 billion won to perform abortions on more than 500 patients, prosecutors said. Their patients, like Kwon, had been introduced to the hospital through brokers.
In January, prosecutors sought a 10-year prison sentence for the hospital’s director, and six years in prison for Kwon and the surgeon who operated on her.
Kwon’s lawyer argued that she did not know that the baby would be killed after being removed from her womb.
Kwon told the court that she had only learned of her pregnancy seven months in, and sought abortion because she had no stable income. She also feared the baby would be born with defects as she had drunk alcohol and smoked throughout her pregnancy, she said.
On Wednesday, the judge found that Kwon had been informed by medical staff that her baby was healthy, and she had also heard its heartbeat via ultrasound. The judge also found that she knew the baby would be born alive through Caesarean section.
However, the legal vacuum surrounding abortions in South Korea was taken into consideration during Kwon’s sentencing, as she could not receive support to navigate her late-stage pregnancy, the judge added.
The judge said that although this was a crime that deserved a harsh penalty, they were exercising leniency considering the lack of society’s support for mothers in situations like this.
In 2019, South Korea’s Constitutional Court removed a long-standing ban on abortion and gave lawmakers until the end of 2020 to revise the laws. The court recommended that the parliament amend the law to allow abortions up to 22 weeks of pregnancy.
In 2020, the government drafted legislation that permitted abortion up to 14 weeks – or up to 24 weeks in special cases, such as health reasons or if the pregnancy was a result of rape.
However, that bill was held by a gridlock in parliament, due to opposition from conservative lawmakers on religious grounds. By the time the ban’s removal took effect in 2021, the country had no legislation in place to regulate abortion.
