- Headline: "Ah-young Kim's Rainbow: The Inequality of the Womb"
- Source: Kyunghyang Shinmun
- Date of Publication: August 21, 2024
- Summary:
Looking back, the womb has always been at the root of inequality. Few events disrupt a woman’s life as profoundly as pregnancy and childbirth.
On the 16th, the body of an infant was found in a reservoir in Sejong City, and a young, unemployed woman in her twenties turned herself in. If all society can muster is condemning the mother as a “horrific murderer,” it’s deeply tragic. The question Korea should be asking is this: why was a pregnant woman in her twenties forced to choose the worst possible option, completely on her own? What resources, what support, was she denied?
Life is precious, but human beings grow and thrive only with the support of caregivers. A child is profoundly shaped not only at birth but throughout their upbringing by the presence and influence of their parents. It is an undeniable truth that the safety and well-being of the mother are fundamental to the safety and well-being of the child.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare recently announced that, in the first month of its implementation, 14 women applied to use the Protected Birth Bill, a policy designed to allow “pregnant women in crisis” to give birth anonymously in medical institutions.
Yet this initiative exists in a society riddled with systemic failures. Schools fail to provide meaningful sex education, and comprehensive sex education is stigmatized by religious groups. The Gyeonggido Office of Education removes even award-winning sex education books from libraries. Even after the Constitutional Court ruled the criminalization of abortion unconstitutional, the National Assembly has failed to take meaningful legislative action. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety continues to delay the approval of medical abortion pills, recognized by the World Health Organization as essential medicines and safely used in 99 countries for 88 years. Meanwhile, single mothers remain stigmatized, and becoming a single-parent household entails enduring immense economic hardship. Against this backdrop, the deputy minister's words, who claimed that the Protected Birth Bill has “saved precious lives that might have been lost before its implementation,” ring hollow.
A body with a womb remains a battlefield. If we are to address the issue of “crisis pregnancies,” the logical first step is to examine their root causes. The choice before us is clear: will we continue to leave women’s bodies as battlegrounds, or will we move toward a future that expands the rights of women and children? The key to this decision lies firmly in our hands.
