Internationally, March 8th of every year is designated as International Women’s Day. The main campaign theme this year is #BalanceforBetter “Creating gender balance for progress.” In some countries, such as Canada, the wording has been clarified by using the term Getting to Equal, which means achieving gender equality in all dimensions.
For Thailand,
the RSA volunteer network and the Unplanned Pregnancy Network jointly call for #BalanceforBetter on International Women’s Day 2019, requesting equality in legal dimensions related to abortion between women and men. Pregnancy does not occur from women alone; men must also be involved every time. However, when there is an unplanned pregnancy and a decision is made to terminate it, Thai law only penalizes women, while there is no law to penalize men. If a woman continues with the pregnancy, there is no law requiring men to take responsibility, even though raising a child is a long-term burden that changes a woman’s entire life. This is one of the inequalities that must be balanced on International Women’s Day 2019. Let’s create change together to achieve equality and justice in society.