By Micah McCartney
North Korean authorities have been punishing doctors who carry out abortions and the providers of contraceptives amid a drive by the country to boost its birth rate, according to a recent report.
Radio Free Asia (RFA) cited a medical field source in the northern province of Ryanggang, which borders China, in its article. The source, who requested anonymity for their own safety, said the head of the obstetrics and gynecology department of Paegam County Hospital was put on trial for having conducted at-home abortions.
The doctor, who conducted one abortion at home that resulted in the death of a woman, was sentenced to five years in prison, according to RFA. His trial was held in a conference room at a medical university hospital.
North Korea’s fertility rate, or the number of babies expected per woman’s lifetime, dropped to 1.8 births per woman last year, according to estimates by the United Nations Population Fund. A fertility rate of 2.1 is considered the minimum rate necessary for a population to sustain itself over time.
An OB-GYN working at a hospital in Unhung County, another administrative unit in Ryanggang, was handed a three-year sentence. She had previously been sanctioned for illegally terminating a pregnancy in 2021.
The pair carried out the clandestine abortions at home, as many as three in a day, according to the source. The procedures reportedly cost 30,000 North Korean won ($33), equivalent to an average monthly salary and enough to buy 10 pounds of rice.
“Typically, OB-GYN doctors go to a pregnant woman’s home to perform abortions in order to leave no trace, but these two doctors had set up medical equipment in their own homes,” the source said.
They added that the department head in Paegam County had reached retirement age this year. The Unhung County doctor has two daughters who are middle school students.
RFA cited sources who said the government had raised doctors’ salaries to make earning extra money outside of their regular jobs less tempting
Vendors of contraceptives are also reportedly being targeted, another source told the outlet.
She said she knew of two such merchants in the city of Hyesan, which is situated on the border with China, who had their stalls seized by authorities in July. Late in August, three others were issued with heavy fines and had their booths confiscated.
These vendors were also permanently banned from conducting business in the market
The North Korean Embassy in China did not immediately respond to a written request for comment.
North Korea banned abortions during the “Arduous March,” a period of extreme economic hardship and famine that gripped the country between 1994 and 1998, with estimated deaths ranging from hundreds of thousands to upward of 2 million.
North Korea’s demographic crunch is also a situation being felt by its neighbors, whose policies to encourage births are so far failing to bear fruit. The fertility rate stands at 1.4 in Russia, 1.2 in Japan, 1 in China, 0.85 in Taiwan and 0.72 in South Korea.
However, North Korea is even more susceptible to the negative impact of the trend because of international embargoes on advanced machinery, imposed over Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear weapons programs. The country therefore continues to rely more on physical labor and outdated production techniques than other countries in the region.
Late last year, in remarks during the country’s fifth National Congress of Mothers, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un named the declining birthrate as one of the country’s major social challenges and appealed to women to do their part to reverse the trend.
“The government will have to carry out major reforms to alleviate the economic burden that limits people’s willingness to have a larger family,” East Asia analyst Khang Vu wrote in May for the Lowy Institute think tank’s online publication The Interpreter.
“Unfortunately, North Korea does not seem likely to embrace these measures such as cutting inefficient and low-paid government jobs or expanding the private sector, and has instead increasingly cracked down on the black market and tightened state control to root out ‘anti-socialist’ behavior,” he added.
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