Police ask YouTube to help ID user who posted 36-week abortion video
![A screen capture image of a video sharing experiences of receiving abortion. A woman shows her floated belly with a subtitle saying that she thought imbalance of her hormones and polycystic ovary syndrome were the cause of her physical change. [SCREEN CAPTURE]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2024/07/22/f0cba767-11ba-4fb0-8022-3654887636d6.jpg)
A screen capture image of a video sharing experiences of receiving abortion. A woman shows her floated belly with a subtitle saying that she thought imbalance of her hormones and polycystic ovary syndrome were the cause of her physical change. [SCREEN CAPTURE]
The government has also asked police to consider charging the woman with murder.
The National Police Agency said in a press briefing that it “conducted a search and seizure warrant last week at a video platform’s server to identify a person who uploaded the video,” adding that they are currently awaiting responses from YouTube.
In the video posted on June 27, a woman claimed that she had undergone an abortion in her 36th week of pregnancy after belatedly learning she was pregnant when she visited a clinic about her weight gain. According to the video title, the abortion cost 9 million won ($6,481).
“The Health Ministry sought police support in finding whether the woman or her doctor’s actions constitute murder, as the Constitutional Court ruled that criminalizing abortion is unconstitutional,” a police official said.
On July 12, the Ministry of Health and Welfare lodged an investigation request to police.
In 2019, the top court ruled that legal provisions that punish women for undergoing abortions violate constitutional values by excessively restraining one's right to self-autonomy.
The police agency said it would decide which legal provisions to apply after confirming the status of the fetus at the time of the abortion.
According to a JoongAng Ilbo report on Monday, the legal community believes the woman is unlikely to face murder charges due to precedent rulings that fetuses are not human beings, and the Criminal Act defines the subject of murder as a “person” or human.
“Considering that the poster claimed the abortion was performed on a 36-week-old fetus, the matter differs from usual abortions" in the early stages of pregnancy, the police official added.
Most abortions are performed on pregnant women in the first to 28th week of pregnancy.
Police say they are confirming the facts of the case and will sternly deal with the matter after legal considerations.
The YouTuber deleted all her videos, including the abortion video.
BY LEE SOO-JUNG, LEE JI-YOUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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