Gender Equality and Family Minister Won Min-kyong has called for the approval of abortion drugs, which many women already obtain and use amid a regulatory vacuum since the Constitutional Court struck down the country’s abortion ban in 2019.

Meeting with the press on Friday after delivering a policy briefing to President Lee Jae Myung, Won said the ministry’s most important task is to inform other ministries about the reasons women opt to take such drugs and find common ground.

When the president asked Won to state her ministry’s stance on the question, the minister openly requested prompt action from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to assess the drugs’ potential harmful effects and begin the approval process.

Though the Constitutional Court recommended legal revisions by the end of 2020, the government and the National Assembly have yet to revise the law.

Abortion drugs were distributed online here in 741 known cases in 2024, bringing the latest five-year cumulative total to more than three-thousand-200.