Prime Minister Han Seong-sook said on the 16th that the government will discuss introducing abortion pills in phases for pregnancies of nine weeks or less. Han made the remarks in opening comments at a national policy coordination meeting held at the Government Complex.
"If a problem has gone unresolved for a long time, we must find a solution that fits today's reality, and even for matters that recur every year, we must find a way to move further than we did last year," Han said. "Especially when it comes to public health and safety, we must not act only after a problem has occurred." She added that an institutional vacuum has persisted since the Constitutional Court's 2019 ruling that the criminal abortion provisions were unconstitutional, and that as a result some women are relying on dangerous methods. "We can no longer leave this problem unattended amid the debate over pros and cons," she said.
"That would ultimately mean overlooking the lives and safety of the people," she said. "As the president also mentioned in July, it was urgently necessary to come up with a safe and realistic solution." Han said specifically that for the first two years, prescribing and dispensing would both take place at hospitals, and that once the necessary conditions are in place, the system would shift and expand to prescription by doctors and dispensing at pharmacies.
"We will also push ahead without delay with the legislation and institutional arrangements that are needed," she said. "What matters most is safety. We must put measures in place so that women who need this care do not rely on unverified methods and can be treated within a safe medical system."
Addressing opposition to the plan, Han said the government takes concerns about the value of life seriously. "This measure is not an encouragement of abortion but is intended to protect public health," she said. "I ask for broad understanding of this intent." She also noted that the Chuseok holiday begins next week. "Every year we implement safety management measures for Chuseok, but this is a time to examine whether conditions have changed or new threats have emerged," she said.
"The government will check major risk factors in each sector in advance and will run a 24-hour situation management system during the holiday," she said. "We will strengthen patrols and policing in areas with large concentrations of single-person households whose residents do not travel home."
Han also said the government will introduce advance registration of vehicles and workers entering large farms, focusing on those with a significant impact on supplies such as eggs, and will adopt artificial intelligence technology for farm disease control from next year. She said the government would also move preemptively on special winter measures against livestock infectious diseases.
