In July this year, US President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) into law, following its passage by Congress. This Act, an expansive legislative package that incorporates most of Trump’s campaign promises turned into policies, focuses on tax cuts and stricter immigration regulations. However, as its details have become clearer, this all-encompassing policy package has fueled growing debate within US political and civic circles. The aspect attracting the most attention is the proposed Medicaid reform. The Act outlines strategies to offset the deficits likely to arise from implementing Trump’s core policies, mainly through sweeping reductions in government spending across other policy areas, with Medicaid reform given paramount importance. This article examines the Medicaid reform outlined in the OBBBA and how, for all the political risks associated with scaling back Medicaid, the current administration has decided to push for this Act. In doing so, the article considers the process that led to the adoption of the Act and the significance of Medicaid within the US social welfare system and, going further, attempts to make sense of the overall direction in which US social policies are likely to proceed.
In the first year following the implementation of the Crisis Pregnancy Protection Act, 107 women in Korea sought support for “protected birth.” Germany’s Trusted Birth System and France’s Anonymous Birth System were discussed at length prior to the implementation of this law. In the end, Korea adopted a model similar to Germany’s, prioritizing children’s right to know their biological origins. In contrast, in the French system, maternal anonymity takes precedence over the child’s right to know their parentage. Today, an average of 600 children are born anonymously under this system every year in France. The Anonymous Birth System has been in place in France for a long time, reflecting a societal preference for protecting the mother’s anonymity over a strict adherence to the biological truth of the mother and the child.
In this article, I begin by outlining the background of the Confidential Birth System, and then explain how the system works, how it has been evaluated in recent years, and what recommendations have emerged for its improvement. The German system has sought to balance ensuring safe maternal care and childbirth in anonymity for the mother with safeguarding the child’s right to life and, later, the right to know their parentage. This effort has led to a decline in the number of anonymous child handovers. To improve the Confidential Birth System, the German government is working to enhance coordination among relevant organizations, clarify their responsibilities, and provide well-organized, compassionate support for the welfare of expectant and new mothers. Going further, I discuss the implications of the German system for Korea’s policy on Crisis Pregnancy and Protected Birth.
In this article, I provide an overview of the background to the introduction of the Safe Haven Law and Program (SHLP) in 1999 and trace its development over time. I highlight recent changes, such as the spread of Safe Haven Baby Boxes, the extension of the time frame for legally surrendering an infant, and the growing number of designated surrender locations. While SHLP has made some headway in preventing child abandonment, it still has structural limitations―such as the absence of follow-up support for at-risk parents―and thus remains underused and low in accessibility. In this context, this article also considers the gap between the law’s original intent and its actual implementation, and discusses the implications of this US case for Korea’s new protected birth system and, more broadly, its social welfare system.
Anonymous childbirth has been a legal right for Italian women since 1997, governed by the legislative framework of Presidential Decree 396/2000. The implementation of this right involves various stakeholders, primarily the Ministry of Health, hospitals, medical and nursing associations, local health authorities (ASL), professional associations, and citizens, who can report cases of abuse or non-compliance to the relevant authorities. Courts, municipal authorities, the Public Prosecutor's Office, and the Juvenile Court also play a role. Italian law primarily protects the anonymity of mothers rather than the children born through anonymous childbirth. To date, the law does not explicitly protect the right of these children to trace their mother’s identity, a gap that Italian courts only partially address in practice.
In this article, I examine a Japanese policy relevant to Korea’s Crisis Pregnancy and Protected Childbirth Support. In Japan, Stork’s Cradle―a ‘baby box’ scheme introduced on May 10, 2007―has, through years of operation, led to a social recognition of the severe vulnerabilities some women face in childbirth environments. This, in turn, prompted a shift in policy direction in December 2021 toward Confidential Birth, a Japanese counterpart to Korea’s Protected Childbirth Support. The Japanese government subsequently issued guidelines for the confidential childbirth program, which, as it was practiced by a single private hospital and with mothers’ identities kept hidden from authorities, had been considered legally questionable. However, the new guidelines assign sole responsibility for managing maternal and child information to the hospital and relevant local government. Despite calls from various individuals and groups for the institutionalization of confidential birth, no significant action has yet been taken.
In July this year, US President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) into law, following its passage by Congress. This Act, an expansive legislative package that incorporates most of Trump’s campaign promises turned into policies, focuses on tax cuts and stricter immigration regulations. However, as its details have become clearer, this all-encompassing policy package has fueled growing debate within US political and civic circles. The aspect attracting the most attention is the proposed Medicaid reform. The Act outlines strategies to offset the deficits likely to arise from implementing Trump’s core policies, mainly through sweeping reductions in government spending across other policy areas, with Medicaid reform given paramount importance. This article examines the Medicaid reform outlined in the OBBBA and how, for all the political risks associated with scaling back Medicaid, the current administration has decided to push for this Act. In doing so, the article considers the process that led to the adoption of the Act and the significance of Medicaid within the US social welfare system and, going further, attempts to make sense of the overall direction in which US social policies are likely to proceed.
Hospitals specializing in pediatric rehabilitation are in very short supply in Korea, forcing many children and their families to move from one place to another in search of appropriate care. The situation calls for urgent action to expand rehabilitation services for children and to improve social perceptions of these services. In Germany, pediatric rehabilitation services, dating as far back as to the 18th century, have, over the years and across two world wars, grown to become an essential part of the social welfare system, gradually taking firm root today as a free-of-charge benefit program consisting of four-to-six weeks of intensive treatment, institutional care, and curricular sessions that help students catch up on missed schoolwork. This article examines the various features and recent developments of the German pediatric rehabilitation system, thereby offering guidance to Korea in strengthening both the capacity and quality of its own rehabilitation services, improving local access, and raising public awareness.
This article examines how, since it was introduced, France’s PACS has evolved, extending beyond the scope of marriage-centric family policies to include diverse forms of families under its institutional umbrella. First established in 1999 as a system aimed at protecting the rights of same-sex couples, the PACS has taken root as a form of partnership as legally and socially approved as marriage and common-law marriage. Amid rising rates of out-of-wedlock births and increasing family diversity, the PACS has helped lay the institutional groundwork for supporting childbirth and childcare in non-marital families, helping shift family policies from a focus on marital status to prioritizing the rights of the child. As Korea continues to record the world’s lowest fertility rate, France’s PACS suggests that Korea should move away from a marriage-focused policy framework toward building institutional mechanisms that genuinely support individuals in non-marital partnerships and their childrearing.
