Page 11 - ARUBA TODAY

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WORLD NEWS Friday 12 april 2019

South Korean court orders easing of decades-old abortion ban

By HYUNG-JIN KIM nomic reasons. South Ko-
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — rea is one of only five OECD
In a major reversal, South member states that don't
Korea's Constitutional allow such abortions, ac-
Court on Thursday ordered cording to the Ministry of
the easing of the country's Gender Equality and Fam-
decades-old ban on most ily.
abortions, one of the strict- The South Korean public
est in the developed world. has been sharply split over
Abortions have been large- the abortion law. There
ly illegal in South Korea have been heated panel
since 1953, though con- discussions on TV and in-
victions for violating the ternet programs; activists,
restrictions are rare. Still, both for and against, have
the illegality of abortions for months stood with plac-
forces women to seek out ards near the court. Dozens
unauthorized and often ex- gathered on Thursday.
pensive procedures to end After the ruling, women's
their pregnancies, creating rights activists cheered.
a social stigma that makes Some shook their placards
them feel like criminals. and shouted: "Abolish the
The court's nine-justice Protesters celebrate after listening to a judgment during a rally demanding the abolition of abor- anti-abortion law!"
panel said that the parlia- tion law outside of the Constitutional Court in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, April 11, 2019. Roseann Rife, Amnesty In-
ment must revise legislation Associated Press ternational's East Asia re-
to ease the current regula- search director, called the
tions by the end of 2020. It or repealed. certain diseases. trician charged with carry- ruling "a major step forward
said the current abortion An easing of the law could A woman in South Korea ing out about 70 unauthor- for the human rights of
law was incompatible with open up the door to more can be punished with up to ized abortions from 2013- women and girls in South
the constitution and would abortions for social and one year in prison for hav- 2017 at the request or ap- Korea."
be repealed if parliament economic reasons. Current ing an illegal abortion, and proval of pregnant women. Also outside the court were
fails to come up with new exceptions to the law only a doctor can get up to two Most other countries in the anti-abortion advocates,
legislation by then. allow abortions when a years in prison for perform- 36-member Organization some of whom cried. Some
The ruling is final and can- woman is pregnant through ing an unauthorized abor- for Economic Cooperation held placards carrying im-
not be appealed, court rape or incest, when a tion. and Development, the so- ages of fetuses and mes-
officials said, but current pregnancy seriously jeop- Thursday's verdict was a re- called most developed sages such as "Who can
regulations will remain in ef- ardizes her health, or when sponse to an appeal filed in countries, allow abortions speak for me?" and "Don't
fect until they are replaced she or her male partner has February 2017 by an obste- for broad social and eco- kill me, please."q

Russia moves to expand government control of internet

Associated Press sparked protests of several are finalized, and is usually
MOSCOW (AP) — Rus- thousand people in Mos- the most important. The bill
sian lawmakers approved cow last month. Oppo- must pass a third reading
Thursday a bill that would nents argue it would allow and the upper house be-
expand government au- the state to control the flow fore being signed into law
thority over the internet of information and enforce by President Vladimir Putin.
and whose opponents fear blocks on messaging ap- Since last year, Russian au-
heralds widespread cen- plications which refuse to thorities have been trying
sorship. hand over data. to block the messaging
The bill would install equip- Advocates say the bill is app Telegram, which has
ment to route Russian inter- intended to address con- refused to hand over users'
net traffic through servers cerns that Russia could be encrypted messages in de-
in the country. That would cut off if the United States fiance of a court order.
increase the powers of engages in a cybersecurity Telegram's traffic used mil-
state agencies and make it offensive. The bill passed by lions of different internet
harder for users to circum- 322-15 in a second reading protocol addresses, mean- People are silhouetted as they walk along an avenue past an
vent government restric- in the lower house of par- ing attempts to block it re- old Orthodox church in the background in Moscow, Russia,
tions. liament. The second read- sembled a game of whack- Tuesday, April 2, 2019.
The proposed move ing is when amendments a-mole. q Associated Press