A South Korean doctor and nurse (not pictured) are under investigation after accidentally performing an abortion on the wrong patient.
According to reports, a woman who was six weeks pregnant went to a clinic last month in Geneseo, South Korea where she was supposed to receive a nutritional shot.
Sadly, because of a mix-up in medical charts and the nurse’s failure to confirm the patient’s identity, the woman was instead injected with anesthesia. The doctor then performed an abortion on the woman without confirming her identity. The patient was unaware of the procedure, per police.
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Gangeseo law enforcement told CNN an investigation was launched Monday into the doctor and nurse in charge, and the case will soon be sent to the prosecutor’s office. An official told the outlet:
“The doctor and nurse have acknowledged their fault. They are now being accused of negligence resulting in bodily harm.”
South Korea moved to legalize abortion in April of this year — calling for an amendment to the current abortion law, which technically sees the practice as illegal. Under the country’s current criminal code, a woman who has an abortion can be punished with up to a year in prison or a fine of up to 2 million won (about $1,750). A doctor who performs an abortion faces up to two years in prison.
Exceptions are granted in cases where the parents have hereditary diseases, if the pregnancy is due to rape or incest, or if the fetus is threatening the life of the mother. According to the South Korean Health Ministry, an estimated 50,000 abortions were performed in the country in 2017, nearly 94 percent of them illegally. Though the actual number may be considerably higher, due to the criminalization of the practice.
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Per the New York Times, South Korea’s Constitutional Court ruled that Parliament must revise existing laws by December 31, 2020.
Woman’s rights groups have also started to fight against what they consider the government’s tendency to regulate what a woman can do with her body. A coalition of women’s groups campaigning for abortion rights said in a statement in February:
“When there were too many people, they told us ‘not to produce babies’ in the name of family planning, and when they thought there were not enough people, they then told us ‘to produceAbortion babies’ or face punishment. We can no longer put up with this deceitful frame.”
Every woman should have the right to choose, just like no woman should ever have to undergo an accidental abortion. We’d tell that clinic to get its s**t together, but unfortunately America isn’t very far ahead in this territory.
[Image via ABC]
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