Abortion: South Korea to approve mifepristone

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South Korea plans to approve its first abortion pill, mifepristone, for use up to nine weeks into pregnancy starting in early 2027. The move follows a constitutional ruling against abortion restrictions and aims to improve safe access to reproductive healthcare within South Korea.

South Korea plans to approve its first abortion pill for use up to nine weeks into pregnancy.Seven years ago the socially conservative nation’s Constitutional Court quashed an abortion ban almost as old as the country.Access to mifepristone for use in combination with misoprostol should roll out in the first quarter of 2027, officials from Korea’s Ministries of Gender Equality and Family, Health and Welfare, and Food and Drug Safety told a press conference last week.1“Gaps in the system have meant that women have not been able to fully exercise their right to safe access to healthcare,” Korean minister of gender equality and family Won Min-Kyong said.“Now that the government has formally announced its plan to introduce abortion medication, we expect women to be able to end pregnancies more safely within the national healthcare system.”Also known as RU-486, mifepristone terminates pregnancy by blocking the hormone progesterone.It was developed by French researchers...