Doctor and Nurse Under Investigation After Performing Abortion on the Wrong Woman
Police in South Korea have launched an investigation after a doctor mistakenly performed an abortion on a woman who was six weeks pregnant.
CNN reported that on Aug. 7 the patient had gone to a clinic in Seoul, the nation’s capital, for pregnancy-related care, according to local Gangseo district police.
“At the clinic, a mix-up in medical charts and failure to check her identity led to the mistaken abortion,” the news outlet recounted.
“The doctor and nurse in charge are under investigation, and the case will soon be sent to the prosecutor’s office.”
CNN added that according to South Korean news agency Yonhap, the nurse involved had injected the patient with anesthesia without confirming her identity.
The woman had come to the clinic to receive an IV solution with nutritional supplements, according to ABC News.
She returned to the hospital the next day after experiencing bleeding and was told by another doctor she had undergone an abortion.
“The police charged the doctor and nurse on suspicion of professional negligence, as they admitted to committing such offense,” Seoul Gangseo Police told ABC.
Abortion is currently illegal in South Korea; however, South Korea’s Constitutional Court ruled in April that the country’s 66-year-old law making abortion a punishable crime is unconstitutional.
A woman who undergoes an abortion can be sentenced to up to a year in prison and face a fine of up to 2 million won, which is about $1,750, The New York Times reported.
Doctors performing abortions can be sentenced to up to two years in jail.
“The court gave Parliament until the end of 2020 to revise the law. If legislators do not meet that deadline, the law will become null and void,” The Times reported.
The court also left it to the legislative body to decide what restrictions might be appropriate regarding late-term abortions.
The current law makes exceptions for rape, incest, genetic disability and protecting the life of the mother, but the ban on abortion in other instances is rarely enforced.
According to The Times, “In 2017 alone, 49,700 abortions took place, nearly 94 percent of them illegally, according to estimates released in February by the government-run Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs.”
“Between 2012 and 2017, just 80 women or doctors went to trial for their involvement in abortions, and only one of them served time in prison, with the rest receiving fines or suspended jail terms, according to court data.”
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