[(Title)] Women, doctors protest new South Korea abortion restrictions.

SEOUL, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Women's rights groups and doctors have expressed fury over the government's decision to classify surgical abortions as "unethical,

妇女权利组织和医生对政府将手术堕胎归类为“不道德”的决定表示愤怒，这引发了对世界上生育率最低的保守国家妇女生育自由的争论。

" fueling debate on women's reproductive freedom in a conservative country with one of the world's lowest fertility rates.

Seoul's Ministry of Health and Welfare announced Aug. 17 a revised Medical Act, which lists surgical abortions as an unethical medical practice, along with sexual abuse, using unauthorized medicine,

首尔卫生和福利部于8月17日宣布了一项经修订的《医疗法案》，其中列出了手术流产作为一种不道德的医疗行为，以及性虐待，使用未经授权的药物，重复使用一次性装置和鬼手术（其中一名医生替代另一名医生） ，没有患者的知识），等等。

reusing single-use devices and ghost surgery (in which one doctor substitutes for another, without the patient's knowledge), among others.

Doctors would be suspended for one month in violation of the revised law as it takes effect this month.

修订后的法律将于本月生效，违反该法律，医生将被停职一个月。

Obstetricians have condemned the revisions, saying it portrays them as potential "criminals." Many are refusing to conduct any surgical abortion unless the ministry withdraws the new law.

产科医生们谴责了这项修正案，称其为潜在的"罪犯"，许多人拒绝实施任何手术流产，除非卫生部撤销新的法律。

"We refuse to be punished under the revised law, which fails to recognize the reality, in which surgical abortions are unavoidably carried out for so many reasons," a group of obstetricians and gynecologists said in a statement Tuesday.

一群妇产科医生星期二在一份声明中说：“我们拒绝根据修订后的法律予以惩罚，因为修订后的法律不承认现实，在这种现实中，手术流产是不可避免的，原因很多。”

In response to the immediate backlash, the health ministry decided Thursday to postpone implementing the one-month suspension.

针对这种强烈抵抗，卫生部周四决定推迟实施为期一个月的暂停。

A Seoul-based women's rights group, BWAVE, has criticized the government and doctors.

设在首尔的妇女权利组织BWAVE批评了政府和医生。

"The government has made it more difficult for women to have an abortion to raise the nation's fertility rate," the group said. "Doctors have taken women's health and life as a hostage for their own benefits."

该组织说:“政府让妇女更难进行堕胎以提高国家的生育率。医生为了自身利益，将妇女的健康和生活作为人质。"

The group staged a protest in Seoul on Saturday, calling for the termination of the current anti-abortion law and demanding women's reproductive freedom.

该组织周六在首尔举行抗议，呼吁终止现行反堕胎法，并要求妇女享有生育自由。

Doctors and women's rights groups have pointed out that the government's move to toughen punishment for abortion would limit women's access to safe abortion services.

医生和妇女权利团体指出，政府加强对堕胎的惩罚将限制妇女获得安全堕胎服务。

"This could encourage unsafe, illegal surgical abortions underground," Lee Chung-hoon, head of the Korean Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists told UPI.

“这可能会鼓励地下不安全的非法手术堕胎，”韩国妇产科医生协会的负责人李忠勋（Lee Chung-hoon）告诉UPI。

Lee said the current law is too outdated to recognize circumstances women face in choosing abortion and therefore fails to respect women's reproductive autonomy.

李忠勋说，现行法律已经过时，不能承认妇女在选择堕胎时面临的情况，因此不能尊重妇女的生育自主权。

"The law allows abortion in very limited cases that only cover a very slim percentage of surgical abortions being carried out today," Lee said.

李忠勋说：“这项法律允许在非常有限的情况下堕胎，只涵盖今天实施的手术流产的比例很小。”

South Korea allows selective abortion only in cases such as those involving rape and incest and fetal abnormalities.

韩国只允许在涉及强奸、乱伦和胎儿畸形的情况下进行选择性堕胎。

"It's too selective to recognize various cases that need surgical abortions. If a fetus has a genetic disorder, the current law doesn't allow surgical abortions, but only for cases where parents hold the same genetic disorder," Lee said.

李忠勋说：“对需要人工流产的各种病例进行识别太选择性了，如果胎儿有遗传障碍，现行法律不允许人工流产，而只允许父母患有同样遗传障碍的病例。”

South Korea's fertility rate dropped to a record low of 1.05 last year, with a total of 357,800 babies born, a 12 percent drop from 2016. The total fertility rate in the second quarter of this year was 0.97, according to Statistics Korea.

据韩国统计局(StatisticsKorea)的数据，韩国去年的生育率跌至1.05，创出357,800名婴儿，比2016年下降了12%，今年第二季度的总生育率为0.97。

In April, a Seoul-based think tank on women's issues conducted an online survey of women who had abortions or considered having one.

4月，一个设在首尔的妇女问题智囊团对堕胎或认为堕胎的妇女进行了在线调查。

More than 30 percent said they decided to have an abortion as they were not financially ready to raise a child and 20 percent said they needed to continue study or work.

超过30%的人说他们决定堕胎，因为他们在经济上不准备抚养孩子，20%的人说他们需要继续学习或工作。

Some 12 percent of respondents said they didn't want to marry because of pregnancy.

约12%的受访者说他们不想结婚是因为怀孕。

The survey, conducted by the Korean Women's Development Institute, also found that 77 percent of women supported legalizing abortion while 23 percent were against it.

这项由韩国妇女发展研究所开展的调查还发现，77%的妇女支持堕胎合法化，23%的妇女反对堕胎。

Another survey by the health ministry and the graduate school of public health at Yonsei University in 2010 found that 77 percent of women surveyed decided to have an abortion because of unwanted pregnancy and concerns of being single and pregnant.

2010年延世大学卫生部和公共卫生研究生院进行的另一项调查发现，77％的被调查女性因为意外怀孕和担心单身和怀孕而决定进行堕胎。

Those who had an abortion due to fetal abnormalities consisted of 20 percent.

那些因胎儿异常而流产的人占20%。

The ministry's latest survey to date found there were more than 168,000 cases of surgical abortions in 2010, down from some 350,000 cases in 2005.

该部迄今为止的最新调查发现，2010年有超过168,000例手术流产，低于2005年的350,000例。

The debate between pro-choice and anti-abortion advocates has been ongoing since the Constitutional Court sided with abortion restrictions in its 2012 ruling.

自宪法法院在2012年的裁决中赞同堕胎限制以来，支持选择和反堕胎倡导者之间的辩论一直在进行。

The court is expected to rule on the law once again later in the year in a case filed by a doctor who was criminally charged for carrying out abortions upon patients' requests.

预期法院将在今年晚些时候对一名医生提出的案件作出裁决，该医生根据病人的要求对堕胎行为提出刑事指控。

Earlier this month, a group of some 400 women's rights activists and scholars submitted a petition to scrap the law.

本月早些时候，大约400名妇女权利活动家和学者提交了一份请愿书，要求废除该法律。

"Keeping the anti-abortion law threatens women's health and life and breaches women's reproductive freedom," the group said in its statement.

该组织在发言中说：“维持反堕胎法威胁妇女的健康和生命并侵犯妇女的生育自由。”