(LifeSiteNews) — The Korean Catholic bishops announced their plan to “reawaken” the pro-life movement in the country amid debates about expanding abortion and euthanasia in the country.

As LiCAS (Latest Catholic News in Asia) reported, Bishop Pius Moon Chang-woo, president of the Committee for Family and Life of the Korean Bishops’ Conference, announced an initiative to expand the effort to “reawaken the sense of the mission and vocation to protect life from its beginning to its natural end” and to “raise a prophetic cry.”

According to Bishop Moon, the plan seeks to restore the “inalienable respect for human life” to political action and public debate.

The national initiative seeks to coordinate regional pro-life groups, such as Life 31 and Project for Unborn Life, that promote a “Culture of Life” and provide support for mothers in need.

Bishop Moon, accompanied by representatives of various Catholic organizations, met with the National Assembly’s Health Committee on August 26 regarding proposed amendments to the Maternal and Child Health Act that would expand access to abortion.

The bishops warned that the amendment would allow for late-term “unrestricted abortion” and deprive unborn children of their right to life.

Father Leo Oh Seok-jun, Secretary General of the Pro-Life Committee of the Archdiocese of Seoul, said that public education on life issues is essential, “so that believers and all people of good will do not lose touch with the central value of life, namely the dignity of human life.”

“There have been many discussions on this issue in the past: We are against abortion, regardless of the gestational age,” he stressed.

The Korean bishops also addressed the issue of euthanasia. Bishop Ku Yoo-bi, Auxiliary Bishop of Seoul and president of the Bioethics Committee, discussed assisted suicide at a forum at the National Assembly on August 28.

“The increasing demand for euthanasia and assisted suicide today is due to the loss of hope for recovery,” Ku said. “When our society emphasizes only efficiency and productivity, caring for patients is viewed as a wasteful and useless activity, which leads to patients being driven to their deaths.”

He stressed that society’s humanity is measured by the way it cares for the weak and the sick. Pressuring vulnerable patients to receive euthanasia strips society of its moral foundation, he warned.

He said that framing assisted suicide as compassionate is a distortion of genuinely caring for a person.

South Korea currently has the lowest birth rate in the world at only 0.75 children per woman. However, 2024 marked the first year of a slightly increasing birth rate after eight straight years of decline, likely due to the government’s efforts to enact more family-friendly policies in a desperate attempt to avoid population collapse.

READ: South Korea’s birthrate rose for the first time in a decade, with 8,000+ more babies born last year