When women face unplanned pregnancies and cannot continue with the pregnancy, it is necessary to make abortion options accessible and safe to prevent the risk of seeking unsafe services.
The Path2Health Foundation, in collaboration with the RSA volunteer network and the Women’s Choice Support Network for those unprepared, seeks service units both public and private throughout Thailand and systematically compiles information categorized by province and health service area, specifying gestational age and service criteria, along with contact information. This database is updated every 6 months to allow the unplanned pregnancy consultation line 1663, online consultation websites such as www.lovecarestation.com, tamtang.wordpress.com, and various consultation service agencies to refer those facing unplanned pregnancies to access safe abortion services and receive effective contraception to prevent repeat pregnancies.
In October 2015, there were 61 safe abortion service units in the network throughout Thailand. Various collaborations have increased the number of service units to 120 throughout Thailand by July 2018, categorized into 92 public and 28 private units, most of which provide services for pregnancies less than 9 or 12 weeks.
Identified gaps that need development include enabling those facing unplanned pregnancies to access choice consultation services quickly to coordinate referrals for services at an early gestational age. The significant challenge in operations is the cessation of abortion services due to various reasons, such as service-providing doctors transferring hospitals, retiring, or taking study leave. Additionally, there are issues from resistance by hospital staff, service-providing nurses being transferred, changes in hospital management, or even doctors’ families requesting to stop services. These issues have resulted in 36 service units ceasing to provide safe abortion services, all of which are public service units, necessitating the referral of women facing problems to other service units in the network.
Another limitation of this network of service units is the inability to publicize services due to societal attitudes towards abortion and the acceptance of this issue by healthcare personnel. Abortion service unit information must be used internally only within the consultation service units in the network, preventing those facing problems from seeking these service units for self-service. Instead, they must be referred by the unplanned pregnancy consultation line 1663 or other consultation agencies. This limitation needs to be developed to allow those facing problems to access services without falling victim to online abortion pill sales schemes.
The RSA network and the unplanned pregnancy network are committed to continuously developing abortion service units both quantitatively and qualitatively to protect the health and precious lives of Thai women, preventing them from risking injury and death from unsafe abortions.