South Korean President Effectively Confirms Plan to Allow Mifepristone

President Lee Jae Myung has effectively confirmed South Korea’s plan to introduce mifepristone, saying officials have settled on an initial hospital-based system for prescribing and dispensing the abortion medication.

Lee said at a meeting with civic groups at the presidential office on the 4th that the Health and Welfare Ministry and women’s groups were discussing mifepristone. For the first two years, he said, prescriptions and dispensing would take place inside hospitals. After that, the plan would shift to prescriptions issued by hospitals and filled at pharmacies outside them.

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Mifepristone is being discussed by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and women’s groups. For two years, the plan is hospital prescriptions and hospital dispensing, and after two years, hospital prescriptions and dispensing at outside pharmacies.

The remarks came after Lee instructed the Cabinet in July to consider introducing abortion medication. They indicate that consultations among government ministries have progressed substantially. A Health Ministry official said on the 6th that approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety remained the first step, but officials were also examining possible health insurance coverage for the medication on the assumption that it would be introduced.

Medical groups are focusing on a safety-control system. The Korean Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the abortion committee of the Healthy Women Foundation said prescribing, dispensing and administering the medication should all take place at designated obstetrics and gynecology clinics. They cited the need to protect women’s privacy, prevent misuse and illegal distribution, and respond immediately to side effects.

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The first step is approval by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

Women’s groups have instead stressed access. Na-young, head of Share, a center for sexual rights and reproductive justice, said most of the roughly 100 countries where mifepristone has been introduced allow dispensing outside hospitals, and some permit remote prescriptions. She said safety checks and guidance for self-administration exist, and argued that better access could reduce the risk of delays in obtaining an abortion.

The groups said women had suffered because the medication had not been approved during the seven years since the Constitutional Court ruled that the abortion ban was inconsistent with the Constitution. They urged prompt approval, while the food and drug regulator continued to say only that the matter remained under review. An official said ministries were discussing possible measures and standards even before amendments to the Mother and Child Health Act.

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Access to the medication must be expanded to reduce the risk that the timing of an abortion is delayed.