South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on Wednesday stated that it aims to approve the country’s first abortion pill by the first quarter of 2027, filling a legal vacuum following the Constitutional Court of Korea’s 2019 judgment striking down the country’s criminal abortion ban.
Gender Equality and Family Minister Won Min-kyong told a press briefing that the drug, a two-pill combination of mifepristone and misoprostol, will be available to women up to nine weeks pregnant. For the first two years, doctors will both prescribe and dispense the medication directly at hospitals, before shifting to a system in which doctors prescribe and independent pharmacies dispense.
Prime Minister Han Seong-sook, announcing the plan at a government policy coordination meeting, said it was meant to let women “receive treatment within a safe medical system without relying on unverified methods.”
The nine-week limit falls short of the twelve weeks the World Health Organization (WHO) says the pills can safely be used, a gap Shin Jun-su, director general for pharmaceutical safety at the drug safety ministry, attributed to the scope of the clinical trial data submitted with the local drug application.
The court’s 2019 judgment, decided 7-2, found the 66-year-old criminal ban an unconstitutional restriction on a pregnant woman’s right to self-determination and ordered parliament to revise the law by the end of 2020.
Lawmakers have not done so, and some women have since obtained unverified abortion drugs through unauthorized online channels. In July, President Lee Jae Myung instructed officials to explore allowing the two-drug regimen. According to the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA), an estimated 32,000 abortions were performed in South Korea in 2020, with the large majority being surgical abortions rather than medication-based abortions.
As of 2024, roughly 101 countries permitted abortion pills, according to the South Korean Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.
Reactions split along familiar lines. The Korea Women’s Associations United called the announcement “a first step toward supporting a safe ending of pregnancy” but urged faster access and insurance coverage.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea said it had “deep concerns,” warning the plan “will further entrench a disregard for human lives in our society.” Religious groups separately said they intend to file a lawsuit challenging the drug’s approval.
Parliament has yet to formally amend the criminal code provisions the Constitutional Court of Korea invalidated in 2019, leaving the ministry’s plan to proceed without the legislative revision the judgment required. In March 2026, Amnesty International condemned the conviction of a woman who had undergone an abortion later in her pregnancy, attributing the delay in receiving an earlier abortion to the National Assembly’s failure to align domestic abortion laws with the 2019 ruling.