In a high-profile ruling that has reignited national debate over South Korea’s unregulated abortion framework, an appellate court has overturned the murder conviction of a 20-something woman identified only by her surname Kwon, who was charged in connection with a 36-week pregnancy termination. The decision marks the latest dramatic turn in a case that has gripped the country and laid bare the dangerous legal vacuum that has existed for abortion access since the national ban was lifted five years ago.
The case first emerged into public view in 2024, when Kwon shared a YouTube video detailing her experience seeking a late-stage pregnancy termination. The video triggered immediate public outcry, prompting South Korea’s Ministry of Health to file a formal criminal complaint that launched a full police investigation into Kwon and the two medical providers who assisted her.
In the initial March 2025 trial, Kwon was convicted of murder and sentenced to a three-year suspended prison term. Both participating doctors also pleaded guilty to murder charges: the operating surgeon received an initial four-year sentence, while the hospital’s director was handed a six-year prison term. In Thursday’s appeal ruling, the court upheld the murder convictions for the two doctors but reduced their sentences: the surgeon’s term was cut to two-and-a-half years, and the director’s sentence was lowered to four years.
Prosecutors had argued throughout proceedings that the fetus was born alive via cesarean section, then placed in a freezer to die, after which medical staff falsified Kwon’s records to falsely register the pregnancy as a stillbirth. Kwon’s defense centered on the claim that she had no prior knowledge that the fetus would be delivered alive and killed, arguing that a broker connecting her to the clinic had explicitly told her the fetus would be stillborn. While the initial trial judge ruled Kwon was aware the fetus would be born alive, the appellate court overturned that finding, accepting her defense that she had no advance knowledge of the outcome.
During the trial, Kwon told the court she only discovered her pregnancy at seven months, and sought termination because she lacked stable financial support to raise a child. She also added that she had consumed alcohol and smoked throughout the unrecognized pregnancy, leading to fears that the fetus would be born with severe birth defects.
The case has thrown a harsh spotlight on the legal chaos surrounding abortion in South Korea that has persisted since the Constitutional Court struck down the country’s decades-old total abortion ban in 2019. At the time of the ruling, the court directed the national parliament to draft new legislation establishing a clear regulatory framework, with a recommendation to allow abortion access up to 22 weeks of gestation. However, successive government-drafted bills have been stalled in the legislature, blocked by conservative lawmakers who oppose expanded abortion access on religious grounds. When the formal ban officially expired in 2021, no replacement regulatory regime was in place, leaving the country with no clear legal guidelines for gestational limits or safe abortion provision.
Human rights and reproductive health advocates have welcomed Kwon’s acquittal, but warn that the unregulated legal landscape continues to put pregnant people at risk. Heekyoung Cho, executive director of Amnesty International Korea, emphasized in a post-ruling statement that the lack of clear abortion legislation “left pregnant people without clear legal protections and access to essential reproductive healthcare.” Cho called on the South Korean government to immediately enact regulatory reforms that remove barriers to safe abortion care and establish clear standards for abortion service provision. Even the initial trial court acknowledged the systemic gap in its 2025 sentencing, noting it had exercised leniency in Kwon’s case because she had no access to formal, legal support for her late-stage pregnancy.