In South Korea, an Effort to Defend Unwed Mothers
Alesia Mason
After years of forcing women to give up their kids, South Korea is now moving to allow women to keep their kids. Women in this story were told to either have an abortion or get the baby adopted. A woman named Choi was told that she either abort her baby or not have anything to do with her family. She chose to have her baby, give him up for adoption and go back to get him back and was forced to have no contact with her family for three years. There are stories for women being told that the baby wasn’t their concern but the father’s concern because it was his seed. The move to let it become a little more acceptable to have a child and be an unwed mother comes on the heels of reproduction being down and foreign adoptions being higher. Many of the pushers for the acceptability are children who were adoptees who, even if they were kept by their families, would’ve had the stigma of being a “bastard’. Even though the group is small, women are choosing to keep their kids are finding friends in places where before, even applying for a job or keeping their apartments meant lying to many so avoid a stigma or being accused of being dishonest.
I’m really happy that these women can keep their kids now, a little more easily because I think it’s horrible that people have to give up their kids just to satisfy everybody else. The other side of this argument is if the women have to go through all this trouble, why aren’t the men in the same boat? I really wish we lived in a world where it’s not bad to have kids as long as you take care of them or at least where everyone in the situation shared the “she’s having a baby out of wedlock” stigma. Maybe one day.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/world/asia/08mothers.html?_r=1&ref=world
3 comments:
I agree with you, I'm also glad that these woman are allowed to keep their children. It is a shame that all the blame is placed on the mother, like it didn't take a man to make that child...even if out of wedlock. No contact for three years? That's ridiculous. All these consequences don't do anything...the child is still here...so they might as well get over it, in a sense.
I agree that all these rules and contracts that result from women having babies out of wedlock in these countries is ridiculous. Like you said, the babies are already here, so as long as it can be taken care of by the parents, why is it such a huge problem?
Wow. Women go through alot all over the world. I would hate to have to give my baby up for some stupid rule like that. I am so glad that the law is changing so that these women can now keep their babies
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