“Unplanned pregnancy” is a crisis in a woman’s life, and when she has to continue the pregnancy, regardless of the conditions, it is a hardship that women must face. The social attitude that views women with unplanned pregnancies as violators of sexual norms leads to condemnation and punishment being perpetuated through family, education, workplaces, and related service institutions. Opportunities in the lives of women with unplanned pregnancies disappear, such as being unable to stay in the family, lacking educational opportunities, career and income options, facing feelings of worthlessness, self-stigmatization, and repeated pregnancies.
The provision of services and welfare systems for women with unplanned pregnancies who continue the pregnancy should be an empowerment-based system to develop the potential of mothers and children to live happily in society, with a good quality of life, and to be accepted and respected in their human dignity. The approach to providing state services and welfare should be comprehensive and connect services from various sectors to cover assistance according to individual needs from the family, community, and main social institutions.
- Option Counseling is an important service in guiding those facing problems to access various services, including safe pregnancy termination services and welfare assistance in cases where the pregnancy must continue.
- The Ministry of Public Health provides counseling services at One Stop Crisis Centers and youth-friendly services distributed in hospitals at all levels, provinces, districts, and sub-districts, as well as semi-permanent contraception services for adolescents, under the protection of health insurance benefits.
- The Ministry of Social Development and Human Security provides child and family shelters to assist women with unplanned pregnancies who can stay in the family and community. There are services for basic needs, counseling for life management, and preparation for child care, as well as coordination with various agencies to assist and support access to related social welfare, with internal assistance agencies within the ministry, including child welfare homes, vocational training centers, and adoption centers, etc.
- The Child Support Grant Program supports financial assistance for child care for families and mothers in difficult situations and facing social problems, at 600 baht per month for a period of 3 years before the child enters the care system of a child development center.
- The Prevention and Solution of the Adolescent Pregnancy Problem Act, B.E. 2559 (2016) was established to reduce the adolescent pregnancy rate. Section 5 mentions the rights of adolescents to access information, assistance, and the provision of services and welfare from the state and private sectors. It supports the creation of mechanisms to drive work in every province, with strategies for preventing and solving adolescent pregnancy problems to achieve integrated work in at least 5 main ministries: the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, the Ministry of Public Health, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Interior, and the Ministry of Labor. Strategy 4 outlines the development of a support, protection, and social welfare system to address adolescent pregnancy issues.
- Operations to provide social welfare for teenage mothers and families by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs by designing teenage mother welfare in 4 dimensions: physical and mental health, social, economic, and educational dimensions. The goal is to maximize benefits for teenage mothers, aiming for them to be in stable families and able to care for children with quality. This is carried out with child-loving centers, child and family shelters nationwide, acting as integrated agencies, coordinating and supporting the drive of work at the sub-district level through the Child Protection Community Center mechanism to continuously provide social welfare for teenage mothers, as well as creating individual records and development plans and processes to develop potential and support teenage mothers comprehensively for access to services and social welfare.
The provision of services and social welfare remains a challenge, as it requires collaborative networking and an open-minded attitude to connect services comprehensively from both the public and private sectors, to ensure that services and social welfare are provided with quality, comprehensively, and in a complete cycle.