• Headline: "Abandonment of Newborn Babies Rises 27% Each Year"
• Source: Dong-A Ilbo
• Date of Publication: April 27, 1972
• Summary: 

According to a study by the sole children's hospital in the country, Seoul Metropolitan Children's Hospital (Sajik-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul), the number of abandoned children under the age of four increased from 1,324 in 1970 to 1,393 in 1971. The Korean Christian Adoption Program (CAPOK), based in Hapjeong-dong, Mapo-gu, reported that 70% of these abandoned children were newborns or infants under one year old. Many were found wrapped in cloth, abandoned on streets, on buses, beside garbage bins in alleys, or even inside public restrooms. While exact numbers are unknown, it is widely believed that the majority of these abandoned infants were born to unwed mothers. Since 1970, CAPOK has preemptively obtained parental rights for over 1,000 infants through counseling with unwed mothers, facilitating their adoption within Korea. Hyunsook Shim, a 34-year-old CAPOK representative, stated, "To address the anticipated rise in infant abandonment by unwed mothers, we must establish social counseling programs [...] to provide unwed mothers with opportunities for a new life and ensure their children are raised healthily for adoption."

• Archiving Note:  

During the 1970s, public discourse in South Korea increasingly associated unwed mothers with child abandonment or the likelihood of abandonment. Without presenting accurate statistics or relying on selectively curated data, provocative reports on abandoned infants reinforced a narrative framing unwed mothers as "abandoning mothers." This framing not only deepened the stigma against unwed mothers but also served to legitimize the adoption of their children. In 1972, three years after CAPOK launched its counseling program for unwed mothers, the four major intercountry adoption agencies authorized by the government also established counseling programs for unwed mothers. As a result, the number of adoptions involving children of unwed mothers surged dramatically during the 1970s.

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