By Partner News Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Abortion in South Korea is increasingly being shaped by commercial forces and global pharmaceutical interests, according to a presentation at an April colloquium hosted by a Seoul-based bioethics institute, which warned that the growing use of medication abortion reflects a broader shift from a medical and ethical issue to a profit-driven industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The April colloquium of the Seongsan Institute for Bioethics, held April 11 at Yongsan Station in Seoul, featured Dr. Jang Ji-young, the institute\u2019s secretary general and a physician at Ewha Womans University Seoul Hospital. Speaking on \u201cHow does abortion become an industry? The U.S. case and legislative tasks for Korea,\u201d Jang argued that abortion\u2014particularly medication abortion\u2014has evolved into a complex economic system involving pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors and policy advocates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAbortion was once a matter of personal belief, choice and bioethics,\u201d Jang said. \u201cNow it has become a composite economic structure combining public funding and commercial profit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jang described a multi-layered industry in which large abortion service providers expand nationwide through chain models to achieve economies of scale, while pharmaceutical companies and distributors maximize profits through telemedicine and mail-order systems. She added that policy lobbying groups promote deregulation under a \u201crights framework,\u201d further enabling the expansion of the sector.Stay informed with The Christian Daily NewsletterSign up<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The shift toward medication abortion, she said, has been central to this transformation. In the United States, 63% of abortions are now carried out using medication rather than surgery, a change that reduces fixed costs and allows for broader distribution through remote prescriptions and postal delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis bypasses time and space constraints and minimizes labor costs, leading to maximized corporate profits,\u201d Jang said. \u201cIt is not simply about increasing patient convenience, but a deliberate industrial choice to establish a business model capable of unlimited expansion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jang pointed to regulatory changes in the United States\u2014such as expanded eligibility for abortion drugs in 2016, the approval of telemedicine prescriptions and mail delivery in 2021, and the inclusion of large pharmacy chains in 2023\u2014as key drivers of rapid market growth. The global medication abortion market, she said, is estimated at $4.4 billion in 2024 and projected to reach $8 billion by 2035.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She argued that the industry\u2019s profitability is driven by significant disparities between production costs and consumer prices. While manufacturing costs for abortion drugs are estimated at $1 to $4, supply prices to medical providers range from $75 to $100, and patients may be charged more than $500.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMedication abortion has become a stable pharmaceutical market that realizes a massive margin structure,\u201d Jang said, adding that companies benefit financially while avoiding responsibility for post-treatment outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAlthough it is justified through the public discourse of \u2018women\u2019s rights,\u2019 in reality it disperses medical responsibility and shifts risk onto women,\u201d she said. \u201cComplications such as incomplete abortion or hemorrhage are borne entirely by the individual, while the public health system absorbs the social costs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jang challenged widely cited claims that medication abortion is significantly safer than childbirth, arguing that such conclusions rely on flawed comparisons and incomplete data. She said that complication rates reported by U.S. regulators\u2014often cited as below 0.5%\u2014are based on voluntary reporting, while analyses of insurance claims data show rates as high as 10.9%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the United Kingdom, official figures reported only a few hundred complications, but freedom of information requests revealed more than 11,000 cases,\u201d she said. \u201cThe claim that medication abortion is safer than full-term childbirth is only possible due to systematic omissions in data.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Turning to South Korea, Jang said the country remains in a prolonged legislative vacuum following the Constitutional Court\u2019s 2019 ruling that found the country\u2019s abortion law unconstitutional. In the absence of updated legislation, she said, abortion services have become increasingly commercialized, with clinics openly advertising procedures and pricing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She cited examples of advertisements promoting same-day abortion procedures up to six weeks of pregnancy for about 500,000 won ($370), as well as claims that even late-term abortions cannot be prosecuted under current legal conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jang also highlighted the role of pharmaceutical companies preparing to enter the Korean market. She said Hyundai Pharmaceutical secured exclusive domestic rights in 2020 to distribute the abortion drug Mifegymiso through an agreement with U.K.-based Linepharma International. The company already holds a dominant share of the emergency contraceptive market in South Korea and has built extensive distribution networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf legalized, an immediate monopoly market entry structure will be completed,\u201d she said, adding that companies have already identified abortion drugs as a \u201cnew core growth driver\u201d and are building infrastructure ahead of regulatory approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jang warned that introducing medication abortion without clear legal and ethical frameworks could accelerate the commercialization of medicine, weaken professional standards and shift risks onto individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe pharmaceutical market is moving preemptively without waiting for policy,\u201d she said. \u201cIf introduced under these conditions, public health safeguards could be dismantled, with costs ultimately borne by women and the public healthcare system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She described developments in the United States as a cautionary example for South Korea, urging lawmakers to establish what she called \u201cthree principles of respect for life\u201d: legal protection of life, safeguards against medical commercialization and protection of professional ethics and conscience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jang also addressed ongoing legislative discussions, saying \u201cabortion policy must not become a growth strategy for a specific industry. The most urgent national task is to establish firm legislation that ensures clear accountability, data transparency, and prioritizes both life and women\u2019s safety.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She further called for revisions to South Korea\u2019s Maternal and Child Health Act to explicitly include the fetus as a protected subject, remove provisions permitting abortion and strengthen support systems such as delivery infrastructure and intensive care for high-risk pregnancies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo legislation that harms life, including the introduction of medication abortion, should be included in the Maternal and Child Health Act,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This report is based on original reporting by\u00a0Christian Today Korea.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Partner News Agency. Abortion in South Korea is increasingly being shaped by commercial forces and global pharmaceutical interests, according to a presentation at an April colloquium hosted by a Seoul-based bioethics institute, which warned that the growing use of medication abortion reflects a broader shift from a medical and ethical issue to a profit-driven<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[517,1035],"coauthors":[475],"class_list":{"0":"post-12127","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-faith","8":"tag-abortion","9":"tag-korea"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12129,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12127\/revisions\/12129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12127"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=12127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}