Korea Stuck in the Past: Pregnant Women Forced into the 'Shadows'

At an obstetrics and gynecology clinic in Gyeonggi Province, a request for abortion counseling leads to two suggested methods.

[Official at Hospital A: We offer surgery and an injection. For the injection, the gestational sac must not yet be visible.]

When asked what the injection is, the response is methotrexate, or MTX.

It is a chemotherapy drug used to treat conditions like leukemia and has been prescribed off-label only in cases where the mother is at risk, such as with an ectopic pregnancy.

[Official at Hospital A: You can expect it to cost 850,000 won. You will receive two injections. It is not necessarily good or bad for your body, but it lowers your immunity. It kills healthy cells as well, after all.]

Some clinics even advertise this injection for abortion services even when it is not an ectopic pregnancy.

[Official at Hospital B: (I heard this is only for ectopic pregnancies; is it really possible to use it otherwise?) Yes, many people who find surgery burdensome in the early stages choose this.]

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has previously warned that this injection can cause adverse reactions, including fetal deformities and ovarian dysfunction.

Nevertheless, the main reason women keep this injection as an option is that abortion pills like Mifegyne have not been approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

Since the Constitutional Court ruling of non-conformity regarding the punishment for abortion in 2019, the Ministry has maintained the position that legal amendments regarding the gestational age limit for medication-induced abortions must come first.

In the meantime, while abortion medication is permitted in 101 countries around the world, women in Korea are purchasing and taking drugs from the black market without medical diagnosis or prescriptions, unable to verify their authenticity, or are seeking out potentially dangerous chemotherapy injections.

[President Lee Jae-myung (July 14, Cabinet Meeting): By leaving this outside the law, the government may be avoiding responsibility, but the public is being put at risk.]

Relevant ministries have belatedly begun working-level consultations. Given that the introduction of abortion medication is explicitly stated as a national policy task, swift and responsible measures appear necessary.

Despite Chilling Warnings, Women Still Seek Out Dangerous Options to Terminate Pregnancies (Aired July 20, 2026)

Reported by Park Ha-jeong | Written by Choi Yoon-seo | Video Editing by Yoon Tae-ho | VJ: Shin So-young, Oh Se-gwan | Design by Han Heung-soo | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.