Civil society calls for the amendment of Article 301 to legalize abortion and create equality

Civil society calls for amendment of Article 301 in the constitution to allow women to have legal abortions, creating gender equality while doctors reveal illegal abortions as one cause of death among Thai women as a representative of the Council of State reveals it is under consideration

On March 26, 2018, the Tam Tang Group Manushya Foundation British Embassy Department of Rights and Liberties Protection and the Network of Choices for Women with Unplanned Pregnancies organized a seminar “Women are not criminals Safe abortion must be legal” at Prakob Hutasin Conference Room Multipurpose Building 1 Thammasat University Tha Prachan

Ms. Supecha Baotip representative of the Tam Tang Group said that the Tam Tang Group is an organization that works on providing counseling for women to safely terminate pregnancies but as we continue to provide counseling, we find that our organization is just the end point women can enter extremely unsafe processes due to legal limitations and societal attitudes, so we think that attitudes and legal issues are two important matters

Ms. Supecha spoke about the call to amend the Criminal Code Article 301 which states any woman who causes herself to have an abortion or allows others to cause her to have an abortion shall be liable to imprisonment for not more than three years or a fine not exceeding six thousand baht or both which Article 301 is the only law in the constitution that has gender inequality as it only penalizes women

Dr. Nithiwat Sangruang a doctor from the RSA (Referral system for Safe Abortion) volunteer network said that there are 3 main barriers to women’s access to services 1) society including religion 2) law 3) health service system the attitude of service providers Thailand’s public health policy is quite accepting of pregnancy termination but the attitude and knowledge of service providers may be issues that need further discussion “The main causes of women’s deaths in the world are postpartum hemorrhage high blood pressure infections and abortion”

Dr. Nithiwat said that the Social Security Office was the first agency to address the issue of women needing to terminate pregnancies legally by granting rights since 2012 with an announcement from the Social Security Office and since October 1, 2017, the National Health Security Office (NHSO) has allowed all Thai women to access services at any state hospital that provides pregnancy termination services

A representative of the Office of the Council of State said that a committee has been set up to review the Criminal Code, which will consider all legal matters the issue of amending the law to allow abortion without legal penalty is another issue under consideration in terms of amending the law, there will be an expansion of exceptions to cover cases where the health of the pregnant woman, both physical and mental the health of the fetus if detected in the womb that it will not be complete after birth, it will be an exception not to be penalized and criteria may be set for safety in terms of location medical opinions and gestational age

Reporters also noted that currently, the Tam Tang Group is campaigning through the website https://www.change.org to gather signatures to request the repeal of Article 301 to protect the lives and rights of women, stating that women who have abortions are not criminals, but abortion is a health issue