Jivin J’s Life Links 3-18-10
by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat
But getting an abortion, once so routine here that South Korea was known as “Abortion Republic,” is no longer easy. In recent weeks, the government has begun enforcing a long-ignored ban on the procedure for the first time….
It took Mrs. Kim 10 tries to find a doctor willing to perform an abortion, and he’s demanding nearly $1k in cash. To scrape together the money, the 6-weeks pregnant woman took a 2nd job cleaning an office building overnight for a few weeks…..
Hospitals have stopped openly advertising abortions. One gynecologist in eastern Seoul says she turns away patients who call, but quietly accepts them if they show up in person. Another in the city’s fashionable Apgujeong district asks for up to $2k “to help cover the legal risks,” and requires patients to sign a waiver freeing the doctor from liability.
[Photo of Runyan: app.com]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Quote from article about restrictions on abortion in Korea.
“Our current income is just enough to feed four and educate the two,” she said. “Activists and policymakers can debate all they want, but I’m the one sweeping floors to kill my baby.”
This is where I ask what is up with the father of the baby? Why isn’t he sweeping floors pay for the kid instead of mom working to kill it?
What a coincidence that today’s Lunch Break’s child prodigy is a little Korean girl, adopted by parents who were unable to have children. Killing a baby does not make your financial problems improve, it just adds more problems to the financial ones.
I love when people say they’re pro-choice but with “lots of restrictions!” If abortion doesn’t kill a baby then why have ANY restrictions?????
I actually have a lot more respect for the Artemises of the world who want unfettered abortion rights than for these knuckleheads who want legal baby-killing, but think some restrictions make it morally acceptable.
Why isn’t adoption an option for Ms. Kim? Hasn’t that solution occurred to her?
JoAnna, Koreans don’t adopt. Blood is thicker than water. Or anything else, for that matter.
Women keep their surnames when they marry, not out of any feminist retaining of their identity, but to maintain that she is NOT part of the husband’s family. The children get their father’s surname.
And children are the social security system. The average Korean family spends half its income on the children’s education, because the children support the parents in their old age.
Not justifying abortion, mind you. It’s just a different culture.
You’re right, JoAnna. In many Asian countries, it’s a HUGE disgrace for an unmarried woman to have a child. It brings shame not only upon her, but the whole family.
Remember that young Korean man who went on a shooting frenzy at Virginia Tech? He was just one extremely disturbed individual, but in Korea people were apologizing to the U.S., crying, screaming, etc. Americans are generally independent minded and can’t understand how strong group identity is in many Asian cultures.