Woman who needed nutritional shot had pregnancy terminated after identity mix-up

The doctor and nurse that work at the clinic in South Korea's capital Seoul are under investigation. Photo / 123RF

A doctor in South Korea performed an abortion on a 6-week old fetus by mistake earlier in August.

Police announced an investigation on Monday into the clinic's mix-up in medical charts and the failure to check the woman's identity, Gangseo police have said.

The doctor and nurse in charge at the clinic in the district of Gangseo, Seoul, are under investigation and the case will soon be sent to the prosecutor's office, police told CNN.

"The doctor and nurse have acknowledged their fault," a police officer said.

The two staff are now being accused of negligence resulting in bodily harm.

The patient went into the clinic to receive a nutritional shot, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

Instead of the nurse giving her the shot, she injected the women with anaesthesia after failing to check her identity.

South Korea legalised abortions in April this year where the country's constitutional court ruled that lawmakers will revise the current laws by December 31, 2020.

The current existing laws make the practice of abortion illegal and is technically punishable by up to a year in prison. Excepts can be made when the mother is sick, the pregnancy is due to a rape or incest, or the fetus is fatal to the mother's life.