South Korea woman acquitted of murdering newborn after hospital delivery

What the report says

BBC World News reports that a South Korean appeals court has acquitted a woman, identified only by the surname Kwon, of murdering a newborn after she gave birth in a hospital following an attempted late-stage termination. The case, which emerged publicly in 2024 after Kwon posted a YouTube video about seeking to end a pregnancy at 36 weeks, has drawn national attention and intensified scrutiny of South Korea’s unclear abortion rules.

According to the BBC, prosecutors alleged that the baby was delivered alive by Caesarean section and later died after being placed in a freezer, while hospital staff falsified records to present the case as a stillbirth. Kwon had been convicted of murder in March alongside two doctors and received a three-year suspended sentence. On appeal, the court accepted that she may not have known the baby would be born alive, noting that a broker had told her it would be stillborn.

The doctors’ murder convictions were upheld, though their prison terms were reduced. The surgeon’s sentence was cut from four years to two and a half, while the hospital director’s term was reduced from six years to four. BBC reported that both doctors had admitted during trial that they killed the baby.

The case matters because South Korea decriminalised abortion after a 2019 Constitutional Court ruling, but lawmakers have not passed clear limits or regulations governing access. Amnesty International Korea welcomed Kwon’s acquittal while saying the legal gap has left pregnant people without clear protections or reliable access to reproductive healthcare.