Termination of Pregnancy (Abortion) is Legally Supported. Obstetrician from PSU reveals that termination of pregnancy is possible because it is legally supported, and suggests that the mental health of the service recipient should be the primary concern.

According to the statistics from the National Health Security Office (NHSO) survey on the situation of pregnancy termination in Thailand in 2012, there are 25-30 Thai women dying each year from unsafe pregnancy termination, and approximately 30,000 women are injured due to complications from unsafe pregnancy termination.

Mr. Thanaphan Chuboon, Assistant Professor and Obstetrician at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University, stated that pregnancy termination (abortion) can be done based on two reasons.

First: Legal reasons. When a pregnancy results from a criminal offense such as rape or is related to the provision of sexual services under threat for commercial purposes, a doctor can legally terminate the pregnancy. This also includes pregnant women under the age of 15, who can terminate the pregnancy because there are laws protecting minors.

Second: Medical reasons. If the pregnancy affects the woman’s health, it can be terminated. However, these two reasons do not necessarily lead every doctor to decide to provide pregnancy termination services.

Mr. Thanaphan stated that pregnancy termination is a form of treatment related to pregnancy abnormalities, which is viewed medically as healthcare or health service. However, doctors are taught that diseases causing pregnancy-related problems are all physical, such as heart disease and high blood pressure, which pose a risk to the mother’s life. In reality, health, as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), includes not only physical health but also mental health.
 
Mr. Thanaphan continued that if pregnancy termination (abortion) is not provided to women seeking the service, they might resort to illegal pregnancy termination services, which are not guaranteed to be safe and could lead to infections in the uterus, bloodstream, and pelvis, resulting in the need for a hysterectomy, as well as subsequent issues like kidney failure and liver failure, damaging the human life support system and ultimately leading to death. In such cases, pregnancy termination is considered a way to save a person’s life as well. “We often prioritize things that are not yet tangible, such as a 6-week-old embryo that is half a centimeter long, over the woman seeking the service, who has lived for many years, has parents, a husband, friends, and a society that loves her and whom she loves. Yet, some doctors ignore these aspects because they fear breaking the law, fear sin, and fear having to atone, even though these women are also living beings with souls,” Mr. Thanaphan said.
 

Mrs. Tussanai Khantayaporn, an advisor to the Path2Health Foundation, stated that women with unplanned pregnancies have necessary reasons to terminate the pregnancy, such as being in school, wanting career advancement, being abandoned by a man upon learning of the pregnancy, or having many children but being in poverty. Additionally, Thai society is not open-minded, as misunderstandings about the law and moral issues make women with unplanned pregnancies hesitant to decide to terminate the pregnancy.

Mrs. Tussanai continued that although there are currently many campaigns on pregnancy termination, they do not make society understand women with unplanned pregnancies who want to terminate the pregnancy as much as experiencing their lives and listening to the problems they face, which might change societal views on pregnancy termination.  

Source: The 1st National Conference on Sexual Health
Teenage Pregnancy, Impact Forum, Muang Thong Thani, Nonthaburi

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