Ob-gyn doctors warn Korea faces collapse of delivery care under mounting legal risks

Obstetricians are abandoning deliveries due to legal risks. The recent criminal indictment of an obstetrics professor over a newborn's cerebral palsy was another shock. Like the newborn death case at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital a few years ago, the latest indictment could become a “butterfly effect” accelerating the collapse of obstetrics, doctors warned.

At a news conference held by the Korean College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (KCOG) at the Swiss Grand Hotel in Seoul on Sunday, concerns about legal risks poured out from the field. The worry is that soon, it will be difficult to find hospitals or doctors willing to deliver babies. Some lamented that it is already too late.

According to Ministry of Health and Welfare data, the number of delivery hospitals decreased by 34.4 percent (243 facilities) from 706 in 2013 to 463 in 2023.

As obstetrics and gynecology became an “avoidable specialty,” the number of new specialists also fell from 177 in 2008 to 103 in 2023. The situation is even more severe in obstetrics, with only about 10 percent of these physicians specializing in obstetrics, according to the association. In the second half of 2025, only 299 out of 620 (48.2 percent) residency positions in obstetrics and gynecology were filled.

The Korean College of Obstetrics and Gynecology stated that to prevent the collapse of the delivery infrastructure, “eliminating judicial risks is urgent.”

They pointed out that “delivery is inherently a medical procedure involving unavoidable risks,” yet if the situation persists where medical staff face civil and criminal liability based on the outcome, “no one will want to handle deliveries.”

"There's something called the ‘butterfly effect.’ When the newborn deaths occurred at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital, the pediatric professor in charge, who was battling breast cancer, went to prison. After that, the number of residents applying to pediatrics plummeted,” Park Hye-sung, senior vice president of the KCOG, said. “Just like the Mokdong Hospital case, this criminal prosecution of an ob-gyn over a newborn's cerebral palsy will have a similar impact on obstetrics in four to five years."

The four doctors and three nurses indicted for the Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital newborn deaths were all ultimately acquitted. This came five years after the incident.

Park continued, “We could reach a point where there are no doctors to deliver babies, forcing women to give birth at home or abroad. If we reach a situation where there are no delivery doctors in four to five years, it will be too late. This is serious.”

KCOG Vice President Oh Sang-yoon stated, “The Seoul metro region is also experiencing a collapse of delivery infrastructure, but the situation is more severe in provincial areas. Most delivery hospitals in rural areas are staffed by doctors in their 60s or older. If this continues, the number of regions without delivery hospitals will increase within three years.”

Oh continued, "In the Siheung area of Gyeonggi Province, there were six delivery hospitals when I opened mine, but now only our hospital remains. We are also struggling to find obstetricians and are considering closing next year.”

He emphasized the need to raise the no-fault delivery accident compensation from the current 300 million won ($215,870) to 1 billion won, enact a Special Act on Medical Accident Handling, and relax civil and criminal guidelines related to medical malpractice in delivery.

KCOG President Kim Jae-yu remarked, “To prevent the collapse of obstetrics, lawsuits must ultimately decrease. To reduce lawsuits, we must raise compensation for non-negligent delivery accidents and eliminate judicial risk.”

KCOG Honorary Chairman Kim Dong-suk stated, “Even in unavoidable delivery accidents, if lawsuits are filed and doctors are blamed for wrongdoing, demanding compensation, it seems people think patients can be compensated. The first reason obstetrics and gynecology is disappearing is judicial risk.”

Kim expressed hope for a societal consensus that “the state should provide sufficient compensation for non-negligent birth accidents, so that doctors who act in good faith are not held liable. Otherwise,” he warned, “obstetrics and gynecology will soon disappear.”

He pointed out that the cesarean delivery rate, which reached 67.4 percent as of 2024, is also due to “defensive medicine” driven by the burden of legal risk. He warned that unless the government implements extraordinary measures, “there will be no obstetrics and gynecology departments in the near future.”

Kim explained that the combination of legal risks, coupled with “low reimbursement policies and excessive regulations,” is causing an increasing number of doctors to abandon not only delivery services but obstetrics and gynecology care itself.

Vice President Oh pointed out, “A significant number of obstetricians and gynecologists in private practice are abandoning essential care, switching to cosmetic or plastic surgery, or choosing to close their practices.” He continued, “This goes beyond a simple ‘low birth rate problem’ and directly threatens the public's right to safe childbirth and the availability of essential medical care.”

To ensure the survival of obstetrics and gynecology clinics, the following measures are necessary: realistic fee schedules and deregulation, increased basic examination fees, improvements to treatment procedures, including quality control, as well as the establishment of specimen collection fees and consultation fees.

Specifically, he called for abolishing the mandatory multi-bedroom requirement for obstetrics and gynecology departments to allow for single-bed rooms, introducing a “risk fee” and delivery standby fees, and abolishing the limit of seven reimbursed obstetric ultrasounds.