7 Reasons Why Women Have the Right to Safe Abortion

1. Every woman has a different life When facing an unplanned pregnancy, women should have the right to choose a solution that aligns with their own life conditions.
2. Medical termination of pregnancy can be performed according to the Criminal Code and the regulations of the Medical Council under the Criminal Code sections 305 (1) (2) and sections 276, 277, 282, 283, and 284. In Thailand, women are allowed to terminate a pregnancy by a doctor in the following cases:
   1. The pregnancy adversely affects the physical health of the woman.
   2. The pregnancy adversely affects the mental health of the woman.
   3. The fetus has a disability.
   4. The pregnancy resulted from rape.
   5. The pregnancy is in a girl under 15 years old.
   6. The pregnancy resulted from deception, coercion, or threats for sexual exploitation.
3. Safe termination of pregnancy can reduce maternal mortality rates more than any current methods because childbirth in Thailand has a mortality rate of 24 per 100,000, while medical termination of pregnancy has a mortality rate of only 1 per 100,000.
4. The death of women from unsafe abortions stems from societal attitudes that feel their lives are not worth continuing, as the saying goes, “Women are not dying because of diseases we cannot treat. They are dying because societies have yet to make the decision that their lives are worth saving.”
5. Termination of pregnancy is not killing because what is in the womb cannot live at that time, unlike mosquitoes that people like to swat, pigs we kill for meat, or bacteria we kill in large quantities every day.
6. Matters of sin and merit are attitudes, personal beliefs cannot be made to be the same for everyone. Even Phra Buddhadasa Bhikkhu said that if an abortion is done to relieve suffering, it is not a sin; it depends on ‘intention’.
7. We must distinguish between professional duties and personal attitudes

“We work in healthcare facilities. Our duty is to promote, prevent, treat, and rehabilitate diseases, not to investigate, teach, or judge anyone’s life”  by Dr. Nithiwat Saengruang, RSA Volunteer Network, at the academic conference “Unplanned Pregnancy: Solution or Dead End” on September 3, 2016