(LifeSiteNews) — A South Korean court has dismissed an appeal by pro-abortion groups seeking to have a website that aids in the distribution of illegal abortion pills to be unblocked by the government.

The appeal, struck down on May 17, was filed by Women on Web (WoW), a pro-abortion non-governmental organization (NGO), and Open Net Korea, a digital rights civil society group, and sought to compel the South Korean government to unblock the WoW’s website after the Korea Communications Standards Commission blocked the site for connecting women in search of abortion pills, which are illegal under the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act, with pharmacists operating abroad.

Presiding Judge Lee Seung-han of the Seoul High Court declared in a statement that “the appeal is dismissed as the first instance ruling is justified,” adding, “There is a great risk of serious harm to public health if drugs that are not manufactured, imported, or licensed for sale are distributed without clear medical treatment and prescription by a doctor.” 

Pro-abortion groups like WoW, Moimnet and Open Net Korea had published a joint statement on May 3 decrying that while South Korea’s Constitutional Court overturned the country’s decades-long abortion ban in 2019, South Korean women reportedly still have to undergo various “challenges” when trying to kill their unborn children.

WoW, a Canadian NGO, bills itself as an “international telemedicine abortion service,” and in a 2022 press release stated that it had launched “a new service that enables women to request abortion pills before an unwanted pregnancy.” The group specifically stated that “women and pregnant people in South Korea are increasingly turning to online providers” to procure abortions.

“We have seen growth in our service every year and most significantly, from South Korea. Between 2013 to 2019, more than 12,000 women and pregnant people [sic] from South Korea reached out to us for support. Post decriminalization, between 2019-2023, still a significant 11,121 women and pregnant people [sic] requested our support, indicating a continuing need for our service,” Venny Ala-Siurua, Executive Director of WoW, testified.

While illegal for decades, South Korea in 2021 fully decriminalized abortion until 14-weeks gestation, and up until 24-weeks gestation “on the basis of social, economic and health concerns.”

The 2021 decriminalization followed a 2019 court ruling that found the original law prohibiting abortion to be “unconstitutional.”

The 2019 court ruling was preceded by a years-long campaign by various pro-abortion activists, including Human Rights Watch (HRW), that garnered widespread backing to pressure the Constitutional Court to overturn South Korea’s abortion ban.

Following the landmark court decision, a national alliance of 79 pro-life civic organizations voiced strong disappointment with the move.

Alliance members chanted slogans like, “We oppose abolition of anti-abortion law,” and, “The state has to protect women and fetuses.”

At that time, the Catholic Church in Korea also articulated its disapproval of the Constitutional Court, with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea releasing the following statement:

A fetus is a dignified human being from the moment of insemination. The ruling denies the basic right to life of the fetus, who has no means to defend itself, holds women responsible for unwanted pregnancy and unjustly exempts men from responsibility.

The Catholic Church’s teaching is unchanged that abortion is a sin of directly killing the innocent life in the womb and cannot be justified for any reason.

The bishops’ conference also pledged to offer full support and assistance to women and men who reject abortion in favor of life. 

In a separate statement, the Archdiocese of Seoul proclaimed:

The state must protect the lives and safety of the people at all times. We expect to have legal and institutional arrangements to protect the life of both pregnant women and the fetus.

Just like its neighbor Japan, South Korea has been grappling with dismal birth rates for years. In 2023, South Korea recorded a birth rate of 0.72 children by woman, with talk that the birth rate is slated to drop even further. The current rate is far beneath the 2.1 rate needed to maintain its population and is even well behind the already low 1.24 rate recorded in 2015.

The country has forecasted that its fertility rate is likely to fall to 0.68 in 2024.

“The issue of low birth rates requires us to take the situation more seriously and contemplate on the causes and solutions from a different dimension than before,” South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol acknowledged in December 2023.

A Newsweek report outlined the economic ramifications of low birth rates, stating that a country’s falling birth rate would reduce the size of its workforce, possibly leading to slower economic growth, higher dependency ratios, and greater pressure on public services and pension systems.

Nonetheless, pro-abortion groups like WoW and Moimnet (the Network to Assure Rights for Safe Abortion to Everyone), have been pushing their anti-life agenda in the East Asian country, under the guise of emancipating women from “extreme gender discrimination.”