Cheong Wa Dae: "Reviewing Priority Access Criteria for Public Postpartum Care Centers, Considering Decree Amendment"

Pursuing system improvements amid controversy over preferential treatment for multicultural families
"Priority benefits for mothers in greater need"
Respecting local governments' autonomy and maintaining support for multicultural families

Cheong Wa Dae has decided to review the system giving multicultural families priority access to public postpartum care centers. It plans to revise the priority access criteria established 10 years ago to reflect current childbirth support policies and social conditions, and to consider amending the Enforcement Decree of the Mother and Child Health Act so that benefits go to mothers in greater need.

The phoenix flag flies at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on Dec. 29, marking the official return of the presidential office to Cheong Wa Dae after three years and seven months, as President Lee Jaemyung arrives for work. 2025.12.29. Photo by Cho Yongjun.

Lim Ho-geun, Cheong Wa Dae’s secretary for population policy, said on the 29th, “The Lee Jae-myung administration will listen to the diverse views of local governments, which establish and operate public postpartum care centers, as well as those of people working in the field. We will consider amending the Enforcement Decree of the Mother and Child Health Act to ensure that the priority access system benefits mothers in greater need.”

Cheong Wa Dae’s decision to review the public postpartum care center system follows President Lee’s raising the issue of priority access for multicultural families on X, formerly Twitter, the previous day.

Sharing a related post from an online community, President Lee said, “I will conduct an in-depth review, including consultations with local governments and amendments to the enforcement decree, to determine whether there is a strong need to go beyond ensuring that multicultural families are not disadvantaged and give them preferential treatment, and whether the preferential treatment system should be abolished.”

Cheong Wa Dae explained that President Lee’s remarks were not intended to reduce support for any particular group, but to make the priority access criteria fairer and more reasonable.

“The social media post President Lee made on the 28th about local governments’ postpartum care center policies raised the need to improve the system so that all families welcoming a child can support it, by making priorities for access to postpartum care centers fairer and more reasonable,” Lim said.

The criteria in the annex to the Enforcement Decree of the Mother and Child Health Act, which specifies the groups eligible for priority access to public postpartum care centers, were established in June 2016. Cheong Wa Dae said that, as policy support for multicultural families has since expanded in various ways, the existing priority access criteria need to be reassessed. It added that it would respect local governments’ autonomy in improving the system and ensure there are no gaps in support for multicultural families.

“In this process, we will establish reasonable and fair criteria and fully reflect the characteristics and autonomy of local governments,” Lim said. “We will also carefully examine the difficulties multicultural families may still face in Korean society and provide thorough support to ensure that no one falls through the cracks.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.