<unk>  was decriminalized, effective 2021, by a 2019 order of the Constitutional Court of<unk> . From 1953 through 2020,<unk>  was illegal in most circumstances, but illegal<unk> s were widespread and commonly performed at hospitals and clinics. On April 11, 2019, the Constitutional Court ruled the<unk>  ban unconstitutional and ordered the law's revision by the end of 2020. Revisions to the law were proposed in October 2020, but not voted on by the deadline of 31 December 2020. The government of<unk><unk>  criminalized<unk>  in the 1953 Criminal Code in all circumstances. The law was amended by the Maternal and Child Health Law of 1973 to permit a physician to perform an<unk>  if the pregnant woman or her spouse suffers from certain hereditary or communicable diseases, if the pregnancy results from rape or incest, or if continuing the pregnancy would jeopardize the woman's health. Any physician who violated the law could be punished by two years' imprisonment. Self-induced<unk> s could be punished by a fine or imprisonment. The<unk>  law was not strongly enforced, especially during campaigns to lower<unk><unk> 's high fertility rate in the 1970s and 1980s. As the fertility rate dropped in the 2000s, the government and anti-abortion campaigners turned their attention to illegal<unk> s and the government stepped up enforcement of the<unk>  law in response. Sex-selective<unk> , attributed to a cultural preference for sons, is widespread. Despite a 1987 revision of the Medical Code prohibiting physicians from using prenatal testing to reveal the sex of the child, the ratio of boys to girls at birth continued to climb through the 1990s. The 1987 law was ruled unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court in 2008.
Abortion in South Korea
Abortion in Europe
Abortion in Vietnam
Abortion in Cape Verde
Teenage pregnancy
Abortion in East Timor
High-risk pregnancy
Miscarriage and mental illness