Abortion in South Korea is increasingly being shaped by commercial forces and global pharmaceutical interests, according to a presentation at an April colloquium hosted by a Seoul-based bioethics institute, which warned that the growing use of medication abortion reflects a broader shift from a medical and ethical issue to a profit-driven industry.
The April colloquium of the Seongsan Institute for Bioethics, held April 11 at Yongsan Station in Seoul, featured Dr. Jang Ji-young, the institute’s secretary general and a physician at Ewha Womans University Seoul Hospital. Speaking on “How does abortion become an industry? The U.S. case and legislative tasks for Korea,” Jang argued that abortion—particularly medication abortion—has evolved into a complex economic system involving pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors and policy advocates.
“Abortion was once a matter of personal belief, choice and bioethics,” Jang said. “Now it has become a composite economic structure combining public funding and commercial profit.”
Jang described a multi-layered industry in which large abortion service providers expand nationwide through chain models to achieve economies of scale, while pharmaceutical companies and distributors maximize profits through telemedicine and mail-order systems. She added that policy lobbying groups promote deregulation under a “rights framework,” further enabling the expansion of the sector.
The shift toward medication abortion, she said, has been central to this transformation. In the United States, 63% of abortions are now carried out using medication rather than surgery, a change that reduces fixed costs and allows for broader distribution through remote prescriptions and postal delivery.
“This bypasses time and space constraints and minimizes labor costs, leading to maximized corporate profits,” Jang said. “It is not simply about increasing patient convenience, but a deliberate industrial choice to establish a business model capable of unlimited expansion.”
Jang pointed to regulatory changes in the United States—such as expanded eligibility for abortion drugs in 2016, the approval of telemedicine prescriptions and mail delivery in 2021, and the inclusion of large pharmacy chains in 2023—as key drivers of rapid market growth. The global medication abortion market, she said, is estimated at $4.4 billion in 2024 and projected to reach $8 billion by 2035.
She argued that the industry’s profitability is driven by significant disparities between production costs and consumer prices. While manufacturing costs for abortion drugs are estimated at $1 to $4, supply prices to medical providers range from $75 to $100, and patients may be charged more than $500.
“Medication abortion has become a stable pharmaceutical market that realizes a massive margin structure,” Jang said, adding that companies benefit financially while avoiding responsibility for post-treatment outcomes.
“Although it is justified through the public discourse of ‘women’s rights,’ in reality it disperses medical responsibility and shifts risk onto women,” she said. “Complications such as incomplete abortion or hemorrhage are borne entirely by the individual, while the public health system absorbs the social costs.”
Jang challenged widely cited claims that medication abortion is significantly safer than childbirth, arguing that such conclusions rely on flawed comparisons and incomplete data. She said that complication rates reported by U.S. regulators—often cited as below 0.5%—are based on voluntary reporting, while analyses of insurance claims data show rates as high as 10.9%.
“In the United Kingdom, official figures reported only a few hundred complications, but freedom of information requests revealed more than 11,000 cases,” she said. “The claim that medication abortion is safer than full-term childbirth is only possible due to systematic omissions in data.”
Turning to South Korea, Jang said the country remains in a prolonged legislative vacuum following the Constitutional Court’s 2019 ruling that found the country’s abortion law unconstitutional. In the absence of updated legislation, she said, abortion services have become increasingly commercialized, with clinics openly advertising procedures and pricing.
She cited examples of advertisements promoting same-day abortion procedures up to six weeks of pregnancy for about 500,000 won ($370), as well as claims that even late-term abortions cannot be prosecuted under current legal conditions.
Jang also highlighted the role of pharmaceutical companies preparing to enter the Korean market. She said Hyundai Pharmaceutical secured exclusive domestic rights in 2020 to distribute the abortion drug Mifegymiso through an agreement with U.K.-based Linepharma International. The company already holds a dominant share of the emergency contraceptive market in South Korea and has built extensive distribution networks.
“If legalized, an immediate monopoly market entry structure will be completed,” she said, adding that companies have already identified abortion drugs as a “new core growth driver” and are building infrastructure ahead of regulatory approval.
Jang warned that introducing medication abortion without clear legal and ethical frameworks could accelerate the commercialization of medicine, weaken professional standards and shift risks onto individuals.
“The pharmaceutical market is moving preemptively without waiting for policy,” she said. “If introduced under these conditions, public health safeguards could be dismantled, with costs ultimately borne by women and the public healthcare system.”
She described developments in the United States as a cautionary example for South Korea, urging lawmakers to establish what she called “three principles of respect for life”: legal protection of life, safeguards against medical commercialization and protection of professional ethics and conscience.
Jang also addressed ongoing legislative discussions, saying “abortion policy must not become a growth strategy for a specific industry. The most urgent national task is to establish firm legislation that ensures clear accountability, data transparency, and prioritizes both life and women’s safety.”
She further called for revisions to South Korea’s Maternal and Child Health Act to explicitly include the fetus as a protected subject, remove provisions permitting abortion and strengthen support systems such as delivery infrastructure and intensive care for high-risk pregnancies.
“No legislation that harms life, including the introduction of medication abortion, should be included in the Maternal and Child Health Act,” she said.
This report is based on original reporting by Christian Today Korea.
