Issue 2. Guarantee of adolescents’ right to abortion and their access to safe abortion – in relation to para. 1 (b) of the List of Issues 4. The NHRCK submitted its opinion that punishing a woman for her abortion under the Criminal Act infringes upon her right to self-determination, right to health and right to reproduction, to the Constitutional Court of Korea in March 2019. At that time, the Criminal Act completely banned abortions, without giving any exception to this ban, and the Mother and Child Health Act provides for only very limited reasons for which an abortion is allowed, which forces the women who chose an abortion to take the risk of an illegal abortion operation and places adolescents at even higher risk. Later, in April 2019, the Constitutional Court ruled as unconstitutional the provision of the Criminal Act which is to punish, in criminal terms, women who abort their pregnancy and medical doctors, etc. who abort a woman's pregnancy upon her request or with her permission, reasoning that the provision completely and uniformly bans all cases of abortions and forces pregnant women to maintain their pregnancy and give birth, which infringes on pregnant women’s right to self-determination, and ruled that the provision should be revised by December 31, 2020. 5. A medical system for safe abortion should be in place, the abortion inducing drugs should be introduced in a lawful manner and an educational program on abortion surgery for medical personnel should be established. However, even though the bill to abolish the crime of abortion has been proposed, there is little progress towards the establishment of a medical system for safe abortion and the women who choose to abort are still forced to go through an illegal operation or buy, by way of social network service (SNS), abortion inducing drugs whose source or effect is not clear. According to the Government, the uncovered cases of illegal sale of abortion inducing drugs numbered 1,434 in the period of January ~ June 2019. 6. It should be ensured that adolescents have a full understanding about what changes their maintenance of pregnancy will bring to their life and what effect their abortion may have on their health. The Government should increase adolescents' access to information on pregnancy, childbirth and childcare so that they can make an informed decision to discontinue or maintain their pregnancy. The Government should try to ensure that adolescents are able to choose to abort or maintain their pregnancy, based on such understanding. Furthermore, the Government should formulate and implement policy actions to ensure access to safe abortion, including the establishment of a medical system for safe abortion, for the adolescents who choose to abort. 2