A South Korean appeals court has acquitted a woman previously convicted of murdering her newborn baby, in a case that shocked the nation in 2024 and highlighted the legal vacuum surrounding abortion laws. The woman, identified only by her surname Kwon, had sought to terminate her pregnancy at 36 weeks, but prosecutors argued the baby was born alive and then killed.
Kwon was originally convicted of murder alongside two doctors in March and sentenced to a three-year suspended jail term. While the appeals court overturned Kwon's conviction, it upheld the doctors' murder convictions but reduced their sentences. The surgeon's term was cut from four years to two and a half, and the hospital director's from six to four years. Both doctors admitted to killing the baby during the trial.
The case came to light after Kwon, then in her 20s, posted a YouTube video about terminating her pregnancy at 36 weeks. The video sparked public outrage and a criminal complaint from the health ministry, prompting a police investigation. This was the first time murder charges were pressed against a woman seeking a late-term abortion and the doctors involved.
Abortions were decriminalized in South Korea in 2019, but no clear regulation exists on how late into pregnancy they can be performed. Kwon's lawyer argued she did not know the baby would be born alive, a claim the appeals court accepted. Prosecutors had alleged the baby was delivered via C-section, placed in a freezer until it died, and medical records were falsified to show a stillbirth.
Heekyoung Cho, executive director of Amnesty International Korea, welcomed the acquittal but stressed that the legal void leaves pregnant people without clear protections. She urged the government to ensure access to safe abortion and proper regulations.
Kwon told the court she only learned of her pregnancy seven months in, lacked stable income, and feared birth defects due to alcohol and smoking during pregnancy. The Constitutional Court struck down the abortion ban in 2019, recommending parliament allow abortions up to 22 weeks, but subsequent legislation stalled due to opposition from conservative lawmakers on religious grounds.
By the time the ban's removal took effect in 2021, no regulatory framework was in place. This was cited as a factor in Kwon's initial lenient sentence, with the court noting she lacked support for her late-stage pregnancy.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk