S. Korea’s top court rules law criminalizing abortion was unconstitutional

South Korea’s Constitutional Court said on Thursday that a law criminalizing abortion was unconstitutional. The landmark ruling overturns a ban on abortion that had been in place since 1953. The court said the outright ban on abortion, as well as a law that made doctors who conduct abortions with the woman’s consent liable to criminal charges, were both unconstitutional. However, the court added that the current law would remain in effect until the end of next year, after which it will be scrapped. The court had previously upheld the abortion law in 2012, dividing the eight justices evenly. Only eight new cases of illegal abortion were prosecuted in 2017, down from 24 in 2016, Reuters said.