Mifegyne Set to Be Allowed for Pregnancies Up to 9 Weeks, 7 Years After Constitutional Court Ruling

[Anchor]

We have reported to you on multiple occasions how women have been taking risks because abortion-inducing medications have not been permitted, even though 7 years have passed since the Constitutional Court ruled the punishment for abortion unconstitutional. However, it has been learned that the government has recently set a policy toward allowing the medication.

Reporter Park Ha-jeong investigated the government's specific moves to establish institutional complementary measures.

[Reporter]

People acquire and take drugs whose exact ingredients are unknown through social media,

[Seller: Another high school student bought it, and after about two to three weeks, it all worked.]

Some even receive anti-cancer injections used for leukemia treatment, which carry the risk of side effects.

[Nurse: What you can do with an injection is that the gestational sac must not be visible.]

This is the reality that South Korean women are enduring in 2026 to terminate pregnancies.

This is because alternative legislation enabling medical abortion has not been enacted, 7 years after the Constitutional Court ruled that punishing abortion is unconstitutional.

For this reason, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has also refrained from approving abortion medications like Mifegyne, which are legally sold overseas.

[President Lee Jae-myung (Cabinet Meeting in July): While the government evades responsibility by leaving them outside the law, the public is put at risk.]

Subsequently, the Ministry of Government Legislation issued an interpretation last month stating that abortion medications can be approved even before a legal amendment, and it has been confirmed that the government has decided to permit the use of abortion medications strictly for early pregnancies within 9 weeks.

In the case of Mifegyne, clinical trial results have been reported showing a medical abortion success rate of 94.9% to 97.3% within 9 weeks of pregnancy.

Considering that the punishment for abortion has not been abolished, a system where hospitals handle both prescription and dispensing is being reviewed for pharmacists for a period of 2 years.

[Lee Jae-gwan / Chairman of the Korean Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology: In-hospital prescriptions are necessary for safe management. The point of whether it should be 9 weeks or 10 weeks lies in finding the maximum point of intersection between how to safely administer the treatment and patient accessibility...]

While opposition from religious groups and others remains a variable, the medical community maintains the position that safety measures must be strengthened, such as limiting prescriptions to obstetrician-gynecologists.

(Video Editing: Jeon Min-gyu, Design: Lee Ga-jin)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.