The New York times ran an interesting article on unwed mothers in South Korea who have set up their own lobby group.
Money quote:
"The fledgling group of women — only 40 are involved so far — one of the great ironies of South Korea. The government and commentators fret over the country’s birthrate, one of the world’s lowest, and deplore South Korea’s international reputation as a baby exporter for foreign adoptions.
Yet each year, social pressure drives thousands of unmarried women to choose between abortion, which is illegal but rampant, and adoption, which is considered socially shameful but is encouraged by the government. The few women who decide to raise a child alone risk a life of poverty and disgrace.
Nearly 90 percent of the 1,250 South Korean children adopted abroad last year, most of them by American couples, were born to unmarried women, according to the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs."
4 comments:
This sounds like a job for Super Hillary!
Chang Ji-young, 27, who gave birth to a boy last month, said: “My former boyfriend’s sister screamed at me over the phone demanding that I get an abortion. His mother and sister said it was up to them to decide what to do with my baby because it was their family’s seed.”
Ugh. Just ugh. Way to see a woman as less than a human being, or even half of the union.
Yeah that's one of the sucky things about South Korea. Females are very much seen as expendable, even though it is illegal the rate of female abortion is very high.
A female friend of mine has just moved to South Korea to work. Recent uni graduate, she was so excited about the job that she wasn't hearing the warnings about being a single female on her own there. I can only hope she'll be ok.
Oh she will be fine, I lived there for four years and in general the local lads tend to be great with a few assholes. Which really ain't that much different from kiwiland.
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