South Korean Court Acquits Woman in Baby Murder Case, Highlighting Abortion Law Void

A South Korean court has acquitted a woman previously convicted of murdering a baby she delivered in hospital - the latest twist in a case that has gripped the country and fuelled debate about its murky abortion laws.

The woman had wanted to terminate her pregnancy at 36 weeks, but prosecutors said the baby was born alive and later killed.

The woman, identified only by her surname Kwon, was convicted of murder alongside two doctors in March. She was given a three-year suspended jail sentence.

While the doctors' murder convictions were upheld, the appeals court reduced their jail sentences.

The surgeon who operated on Kwon had his sentence reduced from four years to two-and-a-half years. The hospital's director, initially sentenced to six years in prison, had his jail term reduced to four.

During the trial, both doctors admitted to killing the baby.

This case came to light in 2024 after Kwon, who was in her 20s, posted a YouTube video about terminating her pregnancy at 36 weeks - just over eight months.

The video triggered public uproar and a criminal complaint from the health ministry. Police then launched an investigation into her and her doctors.

The trial against Kwon and her doctors marked the first time that murder charges had been pressed against a woman seeking late-stage termination of their pregnancy, as well as the doctors involved in the procedure.

While abortions were decriminalised in South Korea 2019, there is no clear regulation on how far into pregnancy it can be carried out.

Prosecutors in Kwon's case said the baby was born alive through a Caesarean section and placed in a freezer until it died. The hospital staff then falsified Kwon's medical records to make it look like she had a stillbirth, prosecutors said.

Kwon's lawyer argued that she did not know the baby would be killed after being removed from her womb. This was also the argument that her appeal hinged on.

The judge who gave the initial verdict in March ruled that Kwon had known the baby would be born alive through Caesarean section.

But on Thursday, the appeals court ruled that this might not have been the case, as a broker had told Kwon the baby would be stillborn.

Heekyoung Cho, Amnesty International Korea's executive director, said in a statement that the group welcomed the court's decision to acquit Kwon, but added that the void in South Korea's abortion law has "left pregnant people without clear legal protections and access to essential reproductive healthcare".

"The government must implement measures to remove barriers to accessing safe abortion as well as to provide proper regulations on abortion service provision," she said.

Earlier in the trial, Kwon told the court that she had only learned of her pregnancy seven months in, and sought abortion because she had no stable income. She also feared the baby would be born with defects as she had drunk alcohol and smoked throughout her pregnancy, she said.

Kwon's case has cast a spotlight on the legal vacuum surrounding abortions in South Korea since the country's Constitutional Court removed a long-standing abortion ban in 2019.

At the time, the court recommended that the parliament amend the law to allow abortions up to 22 weeks of pregnancy.

However, subsequent legislation drafted by the government was gridlocked due to opposition from conservative lawmakers on religious grounds.

By the time the ban's removal took effect in 2021, the country had no legislation in place to regulate abortions.

This was taken into consideration during Kwon's initial sentencing, with the court saying that it exercised leniency considering she could not receive support to navigate her late-stage pregnancy.