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Women's reproductive rights and access to information: the case of Women On Web Foundation.
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Women On Web Foundation has distributed information on medical abortion (abortion using medication approved by World Health Organization for self-administration according to counseling of professionals) through a website to millions of women around the world, especially the ones without financial means for surgical alternatives, legal means in abortion-banned countries, or proper medical infrastructure. South Korea lifted the abortion ban in 2019 but has yet to approve the medicines which more than 200,000 people petitioned the president for approval in 2017 while the country's pro-life group publicly opposed, leaving Women On Web the only source of medical abortion in South Korea for thousands of women each year. In the meantime, Korea Communication Standards Commission*, the country's government content moderation body, blocked WOW's website, citing the website's aiding and abetting of distributing drugs outside pharmacies. A lawsuit to lift the blocking has been filed with the support of various human rights organizations including the two clinics.
*Starting 2019, an increasing number of countries are instituting administrative bodies similar to KCSC conducting mandatory content moderation online, posing threats to Internet freedom and people's access to information, which has been struck down as unconstitutional in the United States, France, Spain, Philippines, and Turkey.
NOTE: By registering for this event, you agree to keep confidential all communications verbal, written, or visual taking place in the event, provided that the preceding does not apply to the information which is public knowledge; which has been obtained by you independently of the event; and the information that has been known to you before the event.