Gyeonggi Province cuts postnatal subsidy, petition opposing move surpasses 15,000 signatures

Gyeonggi Province's decision to end its postnatal care subsidy program has drawn fierce backlash from residents, particularly expectant parents due to give birth in the fourth quarter of this year, who say the abrupt termination without adequate notice is unjust.

According to the Gyeonggi Province petition website, a petition filed Wednesday opposing the "surprise abolition" of the postnatal care subsidy surpassed 10,000 signatures, triggering a requirement for an official response from the governor. As of 9 p.m. Saturday, the petition had drawn more than 15,000 signatures.

Under provincial rules, any petition that receives at least 10,000 signatures within 30 days of posting must receive an official response from the governor within 30 days.

The petition website briefly went down Friday due to a surge in traffic, prompting the province to carry out restoration work.

Gyeonggi Province said it decided to end the postnatal care subsidy program after this month's applications, citing the expansion and entrenchment of similar support systems — including the central government's "First Meeting Voucher" and birth support grants offered by individual cities and counties.

The province had been providing 500,000 won ($374) per newborn in local currency to families residing in Gyeonggi Province to ease their financial burden and protect the health of mothers and newborns.

The petition opposing the program's abolition was posted on the Gyeonggi Province petition website on Wednesday and quickly drew public attention.

The petitioner, who identified himself as an expectant father whose first child is due in November, said he and his partner had carefully budgeted for diaper costs, hospital bills and postnatal care by reviewing government and local authority birth support policies one by one while splitting their dual income.

"What kind of administration in South Korea abruptly cuts welfare benefits right before the final quarter of the year?" the petitioner said. "Ending support in the middle of the year without prior notice or a sufficient grace period is a betrayal of provincial residents."

The petitioner particularly took issue with the gap in support based on when a child is born. "Babies born in September will still receive the existing postnatal care subsidy, but those born between October and December will be excluded," the petitioner said. "Should fourth-quarter newborns face administrative discrimination the moment they are born, simply because they arrived a month or two later?"

The petitioner called on the province to extend the existing postnatal care subsidy to all babies born through Dec. 31 of this year. He said the government and local authorities, which had urged people to have children by warning of national extinction due to the low birth rate, must not turn their backs on those who actually chose to do so.

In response, the Gyeonggi Province chapter of the Progressive Party issued a statement criticizing the move. "The province's debt was not created by its residents, yet the burden is being placed first on mothers and newborns who need care the most — this is an abdication of responsibility," the statement said.

Meanwhile, the province said that while it is ending the postnatal care subsidy along with support for out-of-pocket costs from fertility treatment interruptions and egg-freezing procedures, it plans to expand its budget for infertile couples and strengthen its home-visit maternal and newborn health management program, in which professional health aides visit families after childbirth.

Yoo Young-cheol, director of the Gyeonggi Province Health and Wellness Bureau, said the restructuring of the maternal and child health program "is not a simple reduction in support, but a measure to provide provincial residents with more stable and sustainable maternal and child health services through alignment with national policy."