An unmarried woman in her 30s recently died after receiving an abortion at a doctor’s home in Hamhung, Daily NK has learned.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, a reporting partner in South Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on May 18 that the woman, identified by her surname Kim, died on May 10 due to excessive blood loss from an abortion of her seven-month-old fetus.
Kim had been impregnated out of wedlock, and found out about her pregnancy two months after conception. She had intended to carry out the abortion immediately, but due to a lack of funds she missed out on aborting during the initial pregnancy period when the surgery was relatively less complicated.
As her pregnancy progressed, an increasingly anxious Kim barely managed to scrape together RMB 200 (around USD 28) for engaging the services of a doctor who performed unauthorized medical procedures at his own residence.
The doctor had previously worked as an obstetrician at a hospital in Hamhung, but subsequently left the hospital and turned to treating patients at home illegally for more than a decade for personal profit. In Hamhung, he is a relatively well-known figure who generally receives good reviews for his skills, the reporting partner said.
Following the incident, the doctor was subsequently detained by the city’s Ministry of Social Security for his failure to stem the bleeding resulting from Kim’s procedures, which eventually led to her death.
“North Korean young women who get pregnant fear the spread of rumors because they’ll be treated like criminals or face criticism,” the reporting partner said. “It is common for pregnant women to undergo an abortion to avoid the spread of rumors or, if they lack the finances to do so, many turn to abandoning their babies after childbirth.”
The reporting partner further explained that most unmarried pregnant women receive abortions at a doctor’s home rather than at a hospital, and there have been numerous cases of lives lost during such procedures due to the absence of emergency response systems in these homes.
In Kim’s case, the abortion was performed at a stage of her pregnancy where her fetus had grown too large, meaning that considerable risks were already foreseeable, the reporting partner said.
“This kind of incident would not have occurred if not for the negative social perceptions against young pregnant women. There’s an urgent need for the government to implement measures to prevent such unfortunate deaths from occurring among unmarried women.”
Translated by Marc Yeo Yi Fei. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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