A mother told the doctor that when she found out her 17-year-old daughter was pregnant after a urine test showed two lines, she became very worried, stressed, couldn’t sleep, and lost her appetite, thinking about what to do next.
She had been taking care of her daughter all along and couldn’t abandon her. The father left the mother two years ago for a new wife and never took care of the family. He had no responsibility towards the child, never sent money for school fees or medical expenses, always saying he had none. The mother had to raise the child alone. The fact that the daughter was pregnant was heavy on her because she had to leave the mother to be with her boyfriend in Uttaradit province. But she was still young and couldn’t take care of herself, so the mother had to find money.
Now the daughter has started to earn money to help. We have student loan debts to repay. The daughter is cheerful and has a good appetite. She is now working as a cashier for relatives, even though she only finished grade 9. The mother works as an employee in a restaurant. The daughter is a good and lovely child, often buying things for the mother. On the mother’s birthday, she bought her a quarter baht of gold. We love each other very much and it’s just the two of us. She always takes care of her menstrual issues herself, but the mother told the uncle doctor, “My daughter took birth control pills incorrectly, taking them when she wasn’t on her period and after having sex.”
Besides the pregnancy issue, the mother is also worried about the daughter’s risk during pregnancy because she is very overweight. She had heard that overweight women have difficult deliveries and feared the dangers of diseases that might follow. She now weighs 70 kg, and if pregnant, it might increase to 90 kg, and she is only 150 cm tall. Feeling that the daughter is at risk and in danger, neighbors suggested, “Let’s solve this problem first, keep the child first, grandchild later.” Friends then recommended taking Bello women’s tonic, saying that after 2 bottles, the period would come naturally, meaning it would be expelled. The daughter followed the advice, waited 4-5 days, but nothing happened. The mother then asked at the health center about the daughter’s unplanned pregnancy problem. The staff said there was a place near a temple, but didn’t name the clinic.
The mother continued telling the doctor, “The staff did their duty by not telling because they feared sin.” (But the doctor thought further that if people didn’t know and went to have an abortion with a quack doctor, wouldn’t it be more sinful and dangerous for the woman?)
So she asked people in the market without feeling ashamed because if she knew the clinic’s name, she would feel at ease that her daughter would get help. She met a motorcyclist passing by, and the mother was very happy because he knew and told her the clinic’s name, gave directions, and added that everyone goes there, it’s definitely safe. The mother went as advised but didn’t find the doctor. The clinic staff informed her of the doctor’s working hours.
After that, the mother didn’t hesitate to take her daughter to see the doctor at the appointed time. An ultrasound was done to check the pregnancy age. The doctor listened to the problem, and both received counseling on options, making a free decision based on the reason for not being ready to have a child. The daughter agreed with the mother, received help, and was scheduled for follow-up checks to safely address the problem.
After that, the mother said the daughter was fine, could work, and the abortion method wasn’t scary. Both accepted and trusted it very much, thanking and praising the doctor. This case was good because the mother asked questions, asked friends, and asked the health center, but another case the uncle doctor encountered was not…
Another woman, 26 years old, graduated with a bachelor’s degree and was a government agency employee. Her boyfriend was 23 years old. They had been living together for 5 years without getting married. She had congenital heart disease and underwent heart valve replacement surgery at 4 years old, and her condition was normal.
Until 2012, she became very tired, and a heart valve abnormality was found, along with hyperthyroidism, requiring another heart valve replacement surgery and medication for hyperthyroidism. But the surgeon advised her that if she got married, she should get sterilized because having a child would exacerbate her heart condition and could lead to severe complications and death. She had to take warfarin, a blood thinner, regularly. She lived with her boyfriend, using condoms for pregnancy prevention, but sometimes he didn’t use them, so she had to buy emergency contraceptive pills.
But this time she missed it. Her last period was on December 20, 2016. On January 31, 2017, she took a urine test and found out she was pregnant! Even though she took emergency contraceptive pills, she quickly searched Google for services that could help safely terminate the pregnancy because she couldn’t be pregnant.
She typed “unplanned pregnancy” and “terminate pregnancy,” and the information she found included abortion pill sales from various websites. She passed them by, thinking it was dangerous for her heart condition. She found information about a private clinic with multiple branches and contact numbers.
She called, and the clinic staff answered and scheduled an appointment for services at the clinic. She agreed to the appointment, and the doctor checked the pregnancy age with an ultrasound. It was reassuring that she was only 7 weeks pregnant. She was confident in her choice to have the doctor terminate the pregnancy surgically, which was done safely. This time, she received a 3-month injectable contraceptive, which wouldn’t affect her heart valve condition and would prevent another pregnancy.
Ordering abortion pills online to terminate a pregnancy has caused problems for many women and is ineffective. In mid-January, a doctor had a teenage client who was 12 weeks pregnant and said she got a drug called Cytolog (often found as Cytotec) with 8 pills to insert vaginally from a website named Doctor’s Clinic… The advertisement claimed the drug was 99-100% effective, costing 4,020 baht, but there was no abdominal pain or bleeding. In February, the same user called again and was advised to buy more pills, costing another 4,020 baht, but she wasn’t sure, so she finally went to see a doctor.
Another case involved a woman over a month pregnant who ordered pills from a website named Y..P..Clinic, paying 4,800 baht, inserting 12 pills, but there was no abortion or bleeding, causing her severe stress…
In fact, finding a safe abortion service provider isn’t difficult. There are many ways to access safe abortion services at https://rsathai.org/en/rsa-volunteer-network-service. Call the unplanned pregnancy hotline at 1663 from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM every day, or via the Facebook page: 1663 AIDS and Unplanned Pregnancy Hotline, or chat in the chat room on the website www.lovecarestation.com from 4:00 PM to midnight every day, or on Facebook: lovecarestation. Importantly, all these channels will refer unplanned pregnancies to RSA volunteer doctors who will help terminate the pregnancy safely.
With love and care
Uncle Doctor Rueangkit Sirikanchanakul