Police Investigate After Doctor Performs Abortion on Wrong Woman

NEWS ANALYSIS

Police in South Korea have opened an investigation after a doctor performed an abortion on the wrong patient.

On August 7, a woman who was six weeks pregnant went to a clinic in the district of Gangseo, in the country’s capital Seoul, and because of a medical mix-up and a failure to confirm her identity, had her pregnancy wrongfully terminated, according to a report from CNN.

The woman had actually gone into the clinic for a checkup and a nutritional shot. But a nurse, who failed to check the woman’s medical information, injected her with anesthesia and the physician aborted the wrong patient’s unborn child.

A police official told CNN both the doctor and the nurse “have acknowledged their fault.” The pregnant woman — a Vietnamese national — did not realize she had undergone an abortion until she started bleeding the day after the termination.

The nurse and doctor are now being accused of negligence resulting in bodily harm.

All of this happens as South Korea is in the throes of legalizing abortion. The country’s Constitutional Court ruled in April that South Korea must lift its 66-year ban on abortion by the end of 2020. Since 1953, most abortions have been criminalized, though exceptions could be granted in cases involving rape, incest, or genetic disabilities.

What all this reveals more than anything is the humanity of the unborn.

South Korea might be moving toward embracing abortion as a “women’s right,” but the tragedy of this case — the unintentional termination of a mother’s unborn baby — makes clear that, despite those who claim a fetus is just a clump of cells, the woman was actually carrying a human life in her womb.

And for that, her doctor and our pro-abortion culture will be responsible.