Abortion in Thailand

Last updated

Abortion in Thailand is legal and available on-request up to 20 weeks of pregnancy. [1] Abortion has been legal up to at least 12 weeks of pregnancy since 7 February 2021. Following a 2020 ruling of the Constitutional Court which declared a portion of the abortion statutes unconstitutional, [2] the Parliament removed first-term abortion from the criminal code. Once strict, over time laws have been relaxed to take into account high rates of teen pregnancy, women who lack the means or will to raise children, and the consequences of illegal abortion.

Contents

The legal status of abortion in Thailand is governed by the Thai Criminal Code. Until February 2021 abortion was illegal except under limited circumstances. By the letter, the law allowed termination of a pregnancy by physicians only (1) when abortion was necessary due to the health of the pregnant woman, or (2) if the pregnancy was the result of rape. Abortions performed outside of these circumstances were punishable by up to three years in jail (as well as fines) for the woman and up to five years for the performer (up to seven years if it was performed against the will of the woman).

In 1989, during the rise of the AIDS epidemic, the Medical Council issued a consultation to the Council of State on whether the law could be interpreted to allow abortion in HIV-positive cases in which the child, if born, could not be expected to enjoy an acceptable quality of life. The Council of State replied that this was impermissible, since the law allowed only consideration for the health of the mother, and not the child. [3] Later, the interpretation of health was debated, and the Medical Council issued a regulation in 2005 in which it explicitly interpreted both physical and mental health as possible factors necessitating abortion. [4] This has been widely interpreted to include women who are emotionally distressed at the prospect of having children they cannot raise. The regulation restricts clinics like those operated by the Planned Parenthood Association of Thailand to provide abortions to women only in their first trimester of pregnancy. Those seeking to end second-trimester pregnancies must do so at a hospital. Abortions are prohibited after 28 weeks.[ according to whom? ] [5]

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) regulates medical abortions. Termination of a foetus that is fewer than nine weeks from gestation is permitted if some or all of the following criteria are met: (1) medical necessity, (2) legal necessity (e.g., rape), (3) female is under 15 years of age (and unmarried), (4) the foetus is at risk of severe abnormalities or genetic disorders. [6] : 17 

In December 2014, two drugs that induce miscarriage—mifepristone and misoprostol—were approved for ending pregnancies in a hospital setting. The drugs must be prescribed by doctors at approved hospitals or clinics. Women who self-medicate to terminate pregnancies on their own are liable for punishment under the law. [5] [7]

In a decision published on 19 February 2020, the Constitutional Court of Thailand ruled that Thailand's abortion law was unconstitutional. Under Section 301 of the Criminal Code which deals with abortion, women who seek an abortion faced up to three years imprisonment and a fine of up to 60,000 baht, or both. The Constitutional Court ruled that Section 301 violated Sections 27 and 28 of the 2017 Constitution of Thailand (also known as the "charter") which mandates equal rights for men and women, as well as the right and liberty to everyone to his or her life and person. The court ordered that Section 301 be nullified within 360 days of its ruling, i.e., no later than 13 February 2021. [2] Section 305 of the anti-abortion law, allowing for legal abortion when the pregnancy involves rape or endangers a mother's physical health, was judged to be not in violation of the charter. The Constitutional Court ordered the amendment of both Sections 301 and 305 to accord with Thailand's current realities.

Following the Court's ruling, on 17 November 2020 the Government submitted a bill amending the two sections of the penal code: under the new Section 305 abortion on request would become legal in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, while pregnancy termination would always be made available not only in case of rape or when the woman's health is in danger but also in case of serious fetal impairment; under the new Section 301 penalties for later-term abortion would be reduced to no longer than six months of jail and/or a fine no higher than 10,000 baht. [8] The House of Representatives approved the bill in first reading on 23 December 2020 [9] and finally passed it in third reading on 20 January 2021, with 276 votes in support, 8 abstentions and 54 votes against. [10] The Senate passed it on 25 January 2021 with 166 to 7 votes in favor, completing the Parliament's approval. [11] The bill received the royal assent on 5 February 2021 and was announced in the Royal Thai Government Gazette on 6 February 2021, which set its commencement date on the following day. [12]

Abortion statistics

Teen pregnancies in Thailand account for as much as 15% of total pregnancies, well above the World Health Organization's 10% median. Data from the Thai Department of Health showed that 72,566 teens aged 10–19 years old gave birth in 2018, or 199 such babies being born per day. Of the total, 9% gave birth to their second child. In the 10–14 age group, 2,385 young girls, down from 2,559 in 2017, gave birth, seven cases a day. [13] According to the Thai National Health Security Office, over 300,000 women have sought medical treatment at state hospitals for incomplete abortions from 2009 to 2019. Nearly 100,000 of them suffered complications and infections. More than 20 of them died each year. The casualties mount even though safe, WHO-approved abortion pills, legal in more than 60 countries, have been available for over a decade. [7]

Teens rarely visit abortion clinics, possibly because parental consent is required, or possibly because they cannot afford the cost, between 4,000 and 5,000 baht. Clinics, like state hospitals, charge women for abortion services, except for rape victims or economically disadvantaged women. [5]

Health department data suggest that most women seek abortions for social and economic reasons. Quantifying the number of abortions performed is difficult as numbers are not made public. A 2012 report published by state hospitals does not differentiate between elective abortion, abortion for health reasons, or miscarriage. "...there has never been any official report on the ratio of induced abortions to the number of abortions overall in Thailand," the paper said. The director of Thailand's Bureau of Reproductive Health notes that there is no centralized database for abortion numbers in Thailand. Private clinics, citing confidentiality, do not provide data to his department. Illegal abortions are impossible to track. "No one in this country knows the overall number of abortions," he said. [5] The lack of national data means that his bureau resorts to conducting a yearly survey called the "Abortion Surveillance Report". [14] It compiles cases of abortion from a number of provinces to gauge the background and motivations of those who seek abortions.

Public opinion

Acceptance of abortion by the Thai public has lagged behind the gradual easing of abortion laws. Buddhism is the faith of 98% of the Thai populace, and nearly all Buddhist clergy and experts view abortion as a transgression that will haunt the "sinner". [5] In a UNICEF study, those interviewed observe that abortion is not accepted culturally. Although medical abortion is available if specific criteria are met, social taboos stigmatize those seeking an abortion. Adolescents say their family members disapprove of abortion and that public health services staff frequently oppose abortion and denigrate women who inquire about it. [6] : 22 

Patients under age 18 must have parental approval to access health care services. Adolescents emphasize the barrier that the requirement for parental consent creates. Most teens do not want their parents to know they are using reproductive health services. Parental consent is an obstacle to both general services such as birth control counseling as well as legal abortion services. Some of those interviewed describe a lack of privacy in hospitals as a barrier to accessing services. Youth responses also show that adolescents lack trust in service providers. They fear providers will not keep information confidential and are particularly anxious that providers will share information with family and other community members. This fear is heightened in smaller, close-knit rural communities. [6] : 21  Even in cases in which abortion is legal, interviewees reported that a large percentage of physicians are not willing to perform abortions or prescribe medication for medical abortion due to their beliefs or social pressures. [6] : 2 

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abortion law</span> Laws that allow, prohibit, or regulate abortion

Abortion laws vary widely among countries and territories, and have changed over time. Such laws range from abortion being freely available on request, to regulation or restrictions of various kinds, to outright prohibition in all circumstances. Many countries and territories that allow abortion have gestational limits for the procedure depending on the reason; with the majority being up to 12 weeks for abortion on request, up to 24 weeks for rape, incest, or socioeconomic reasons, and more for fetal impairment or risk to the woman's health or life. As of 2022, countries that legally allow abortion on request or for socioeconomic reasons comprise about 60% of the world's population. In 2024, France became the first country to explicitly protect abortion rights in its constitution, while Yugoslavia implicitly inscribed abortion rights in its constitution in 1974.

Abortion in Australia is legal. There are no federal abortion laws, and full decriminalisation of the procedure has been enacted in all jurisdictions. Access to abortion varies between the states and territories: Surgical abortions are readily available on request within the first 22 to 24 weeks of pregnancy in most jurisdictions, and up to 16 weeks in Tasmania. Later-term abortions can be obtained with the approval of two doctors, although the Australian Capital Territory only requires a single physician's approval.

Many jurisdictions have laws applying to minors and abortion. These parental involvement laws require that one or more parents consent or be informed before their minor daughter may legally have an abortion.

Abortion in Israel is permitted when determined by a termination committee, with the vast majority of cases being approved, as of 2019. The rate of abortion in Israel has steadily declined since 1988, and compared to the rest of the world, abortion rates in Israel are moderate. According to government data, in Israel, abortion rates in 2016 dropped steadily to 9 per 1,000 women of childbearing age, lower than England (16.2) and the United States (13.2). 99% of abortions are carried out in the first trimester. Despite allegations of permitting abortion under limited circumstances, Haaretz noted in 2019 that this is not the case, and abortion is almost always permitted in Israel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abortion in South Africa</span>

Abortion in South Africa is legal by request when the pregnancy is under 13 weeks. It is also legal to terminate a pregnancy between weeks 13 and 20 if the continued pregnancy would significantly affect the woman's social or economic circumstances, poses a risk of injury to the woman's physical or mental health, there is a substantial risk that the foetus would suffer from a severe physical or mental abnormality, or the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest. If the pregnancy is more than 20 weeks, a termination is legal if the foetus' life is in danger, or there is a likelihood of serious birth defects.

The timeline of women's legal rights (other than voting) represents formal changes and reforms regarding women's rights. The changes include actual law reforms, as well as other formal changes (e.g., reforms through new interpretations of laws by precedents). The right to vote is exempted from the timeline: for that right, see Timeline of women's suffrage. The timeline excludes ideological changes and events within feminism and antifeminism; for that, see Timeline of feminism.

This is a timeline of reproductive rights legislation, a chronological list of laws and legal decisions affecting human reproductive rights. Reproductive rights are a sub-set of human rights pertaining to issues of reproduction and reproductive health. These rights may include some or all of the following: the right to legal or safe abortion, the right to birth control, the right to access quality reproductive healthcare, and the right to education and access in order to make reproductive choices free from coercion, discrimination, and violence. Reproductive rights may also include the right to receive education about contraception and sexually transmitted infections, and freedom from coerced sterilization, abortion, and contraception, and protection from practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM).

Abortion has been legal in India under various circumstances with the introduction of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1971. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Regulations, 2003 were issued under the Act to enable women to access safe and legal abortion services.

Abortion in Namibia is restricted under the Abortion and Sterilisation Act of South Africa (1975), which Namibia inherited at the time of Independence from South Africa in March 1990. The act only allows for the termination of a pregnancy in cases of serious threat to the maternal or fetal health or when the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest. This law has not been updated since, and attempts to liberalise it have been met with fierce opposition from religious and women's groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abortion law in the United States by state</span>

The legality of abortion in the United States and the various restrictions imposed on the procedure vary significantly, depending on the laws of each state or other jurisdiction, although there is no uniform federal law. Some states prohibit abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with few exceptions; others permit it up to a certain point in a woman's pregnancy, while some allow abortion throughout a woman's pregnancy. In states where abortion is legal, several classes of restrictions on the procedure may exist, such as parental consent or notification laws, requirements that patients be shown an ultrasound before obtaining an abortion, mandatory waiting periods, and counseling requirements.

Abortion in Denmark was fully legalized on 1 October 1973, allowing the procedure to be done electively if a woman's pregnancy has not exceeded its 12th week. Under Danish law, the patient must be over the age of 18 to decide on an abortion alone; parental consent is required for minors, except in special circumstances. An abortion can be performed after 12 weeks if the woman's life or health are in danger. A woman may also be granted an authorization to abort after 12 weeks if certain circumstances are proved to be present.

Abortion in Spain is legal upon request up to 14 weeks of pregnancy, and at later stages in cases of risk to the life or health of the woman or serious fetal defects.

Abortion in Greece has been fully legalized since 1986, when Law 1609/1986 was passed effective from 3 July 1986. Partial legalization of abortion in Greece was passed in Law 821 in 1978 that provided for the legal termination of a pregnancy, with no time limitation, in the event of a threat to the health or life of the woman. This law also allowed for termination up to the 12th week of pregnancy due to psychiatric indications and to the 20th week due to fetal pathology. Following the passage of the 1986 law, abortions can be performed on-demand in hospitals for women whose pregnancies have not exceeded 12 weeks. In the case of rape or incest, an abortion can occur as late as 19 weeks, and as late as 24 weeks in the case of fetal abnormalities. In case of inevitable risk to the life of the pregnant woman or a risk of serious and continuous damage to her physical or mental health, termination of pregnancy is legal any time before birth. Girls under the age of 18 must get written permission from a parent or guardian before being allowed an abortion.

Abortion in Zimbabwe is available under limited circumstances. Zimbabwe's current abortion law, the Termination of Pregnancy Act, was enacted by Rhodesia's white minority government in 1977. The law permits abortion if the pregnancy endangers the life of the woman or threatens to permanently impair her physical health, if the child may be born with serious physical or mental defects, or if the fetus was conceived as a result of rape or incest. Nevertheless, an estimated 70,000+ illegal abortions are performed in Zimbabwe each year.

Forced abortion is a form of reproductive coercion that refers to the act of compelling a person to undergo termination of a pregnancy against their will or without explicit consent. Forced abortion may also be defined as coerced abortion, and may occur due to a variety of outside forces such as societal pressure, or due to intervention by perpetrators such as an intimate partner, parental guardian, medical practitioners, or others who may cause abortion by force, threat or coercion. It may also occur by taking advantage of a situation where a pregnant individual is unable to give consent, or when valid consent is in question due to duress. This may also include the instances when the conduct was neither justified by medical or hospital treatment, which does not include instances in which the pregnant individual is at risk of life-threatening injury due to unsustainable pregnancy. Similar to other forms of reproductive coercion such as forced sterilization, forced abortion may include a physical invasion of female reproductive organs, therefore creating the possibly of causing long term threat or injury preventing viable future pregnancies. Forced abortion is considered a human rights violation by the United Nations due to its failure to comply with the human right to reproductive choice and control without coercion, discrimination, and violence.

Abortion is a controversial topic in Nigeria. Abortion in Nigeria is governed by the two laws that differs greatly depending on geographical location. Northern Nigeria is governed by The Penal Code and Southern Nigeria is governed by The Criminal Code. The only legal way to have an abortion in Nigeria is if having the child is going to put the mother's life in danger. However, sex-selective abortion has long had acceptance in Nigeria.

As of 2024, abortion is illegal in Indiana. It is only legal in cases involving fatal fetal abnormalities, to preserve the life and physical health of the mother, and in cases of rape or incest up to 10 weeks of pregnancy. Previously abortion in Indiana was legal up to 20 weeks; a near-total ban that was scheduled to take effect on August 1, 2023, was placed on hold due to further legal challenges, but is set to take place, after the Indiana Supreme Court denied an appeal by the ACLU, and once it certifies a previous ruling that an abortion ban doesn't violate the state constitution. In the wake of the 2022 Dobbs Supreme Court ruling, abortion in Indiana remained legal despite Indiana lawmakers voting in favor of a near-total abortion ban on August 5, 2022. Governor Eric Holcomb signed this bill into law the same day. The new law became effective on September 15, 2022. However, on September 22, 2022, Special Judge Kelsey B. Hanlon of the Monroe County Circuit Court granted a preliminary injunction against the enforcement of the ban. Her ruling allows the state's previous abortion law, which allows abortions up to 20 weeks after fertilization with exceptions for rape and incest, to remain in effect.

Abortion in Singapore is legal and widely accessible. It was formally legalised in 1974, being one of the first countries in Asia to do so. It is available on request for Singaporean citizens, permanent residents, individuals with an issued student or work pass, individuals who have been a resident of Singapore for a minimum of four months as well as anyone married to a Singaporean citizen or a permanent resident. Foreigners may also obtain an abortion in Singapore if their lives are endangered.

In Malawi, abortion is only legal to save the life of the mother. Abortion is a felony punishable by prison. Malawi's abortion law is one of the strictest in the world.

In Lesotho, abortion is illegal unless the pregnancy poses a risk to life or health.

References

  1. ↑ "As U.S. Enforces Abortion Restrictions, Thailand Expands Access". Time. 27 October 2022. Retrieved 2023-01-06.
  2. 1 2 "Abortion laws to be amended by court ruling". Bangkok Post. 20 February 2020. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  3. ↑ อวิการัตน์ นิยมไทย (January–February 2011). "กฎหมายเกี่ยวกับการทำแท้ง: Abortion act" (PDF). Chunniti (in Thai): 167–176. ISSN   1686-3720 . Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  4. ↑ "ข้อบังคับแพทยสภา ว่าด้วยหลักเกณฑ์การปฏิบัติเกี่ยวกับการยุติการตั้งครรภ์ทางการแพทย์ ตามมาตรา 305 แห่งประมวลกฎหมายอาญา พ.ศ. 2548" [The Thai Medical Council’s Regulation On Criteria for Performing Therapeutic Termination of Pregnancy In accordance with Section 305 of the Criminal Code of Thailand, B.E. 2548](PDF). Royal Thai Government Gazette. 122 (118D): 7–8. 15 December 2005. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Charuvastra, Teeranai (3 March 2017). "Abortion in Thailand: More safe and legal than you may have thought". Khaosod English. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Situation Analysis of Adolescent Pregnancy in Thailand" (PDF). UNICEF. 2015. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  7. 1 2 Ekachai, Sanitsuda (21 February 2020). "Historic ruling offers pro-choice hope". Opinion. Bangkok Post. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  8. ↑ "Abortion in first 12 weeks to be allowed". Bangkok Post. 2020-11-17. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
  9. ↑ "Historic abortion bill passes". Bangkok Post. 2020-12-24. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
  10. ↑ "House passes early-stage abortion bill". Bangkok Post. 2021-01-21. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
  11. ↑ "Thailand backs amendment allowing early-stage abortions". Reuters. 2021-01-26. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
  12. ↑ "พระราชบัญญัติแก้ไขประมวลกฎหมายอาญา (ฉบับที่ 28) พ.ศ. 2564" [An act Amending the Penal Code (No. 28) B.E. 2654 (2021)](PDF). Royal Thai Government Gazette (in Thai). 138 (10A): 1–2. 6 February 2021. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 6, 2021.
  13. ↑ "World Contraception Day: Empowering young people to take family planning into their own hands". Bayer Thai Co., Ltd. (Press release). 26 September 2019. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  14. ↑ "Teenage Pregnancy Surveillance Report 2019". Bureau of Reproductive Health (in Thai). Ministry of Public Health. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.