Story after the training “Innovation in Safe Abortion” January 20-21, 2020
This two-day training reinforced my confidence that… “From now on, women will be able to choose… and decide in a life situation truly safely.”
Unplanned pregnancy and the option to terminate a pregnancy or have an abortion is a life situation for women that can always occur. I wouldn’t search for the beginning of the story of why a woman might have an unplanned pregnancy because there are various reasons. However, when faced with such a situation, there are only two choices: continue the pregnancy or not.
In the unprepared situation of teenagers, it is a risk point for unsafe services if the decision leads to illegal abortion or buying abortion pills online to use by themselves without understanding the gestational age, correct usage, and the health consequences afterward.
Especially when they can’t tell anyone about it, the risk of unsafe services increases. During the training, there was a sentence from the Department of Health, Ministry of Public Health, clearly stating that “The right to decide belongs to teenagers” which made me smile… because that reduces the barriers that block teenagers when they face an unplanned pregnancy.
The Department of Health’s slide ended on the last page with a sentence full of confidence-building for teenagers and workers that the Department of Health supports access to safe abortion services under the law and medical council regulations
During the training, there was a discussion on the legal aspects, explaining the importance of women’s lives over the life in the womb. The law clearly states that the beginning of being human starts when born and survives as an infant. Hearing this, while women are facing problems, as a human being, they should receive safe services. A woman’s life is more valuable than risking unsafe conditions. It strongly reminds us that the law is also on women’s side through such interpretation.
The peak of the two-day training was the lecture and demonstration of abortion methods, conveyed by a team of medical professors and doctors who have always helped women. Using a manual vacuum aspiration (MVA) instead of the traditional curettage method, which the World Health Organization recommends discontinuing, is a better and safer method, avoiding causing women more pain after the pain of facing an unplanned pregnancy and deciding to terminate it.
Another safe method of abortion is using medication, with two drugs (Mifepristone or RU486 and Misoprostol or Cytotec) registered in Thailand to be used together under the trade name Medabon. This drug is listed in the national essential drug list for terminating pregnancies less than 24 weeks. Medabon will be available in medical facilities registered for drug use with the Department of Health, Ministry of Public Health.
What I think is very good is that after terminating the pregnancy, women can immediately use semi-permanent contraception, such as an IUD or contraceptive implant. The NHSO supports both the cost of abortion services and semi-permanent contraception to prevent unsafe abortions and unplanned pregnancies in the future.
During the training, I was encouraged by a sentence that made me feel, “Yay…. Exactly!”
One of the medical speakers said, “A woman with an unplanned pregnancy is a patient we must care for. An unplanned pregnancy is a condition where the patient comes to the hospital for treatment.”
Not only that…
A speaker from the Nursing Council talked about respecting rights and not violating the decision-making rights of service recipients
For me and many others, we believe that unplanned pregnancy and the choice to terminate it is a life situation that, if given the opportunity to access safe services with understanding from doctors, nurses, medical facilities, and related multidisciplinary professionals, women can safely get through the situation..
Because no woman in the world intends to get pregnant to have an abortion
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