Newsflash #3: The Right to a Legal Abortion

In his NYTimes article titled “Thai Police Find 2,000 Illegally Aborted Fetuses”, Seth Mydans describes how police found at least 2,000 fetuses from illegal abortion clinics hidden at a Buddhist temple in Thailand. Mydans describes how Thailand is a Buddhist country with a generally conservative viewpoint on sexual matters but also with a thriving sex industry. Although birth control is largely available, young adults and teens are not well informed on the subject. Following the discovery of the fetuses, the local police found 20 clinics in the area that were performing illegal and dangerous abortions. One woman, who was arrested for delivering the fetuses, admitted that she was raising eight children who had survived the procedure. She is quoted saying, “if the kids won’t die, there’s no need to kill them” (Mydans). Mydans explains how this uncovering of thousands of aborted fetuses has lead to calls for stronger laws against illegal abortions and Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has maintained his position that the current legislation was “flexible enough” (Mydans). Abortions in Thailand, however, are only legal in instances of rape, incest, or if the mother’s life is in danger. Under Thai law, performing illegal abortions is punishable with up to five years in prison and a fine of up to 10,000 baht (~$330 USD). There are no laws allowing abortions in the first trimester as we have here in the United States, and therefore abortions are very hard to come by in Thailand legally. Even though forms of birth control are legal and available, most young people in the nation are misinformed and do not know the facts surrounding sex and pregnancy. The Public Health Ministry has recently ordered a nation crackdown on clinics that currently perform illegal abortions in response to demands for strengthening anti-abortion laws.

Another article on the discovery of the fetuses goes into further detail surrounding the potential changing of Thai abortion laws. Although religion is often cited as the main driving force of conservatism in Thailand, Phramaha Vudhijaya Vajiramedhi is a leader of the faith who thinks it “might be time to take a new approach”. He argues that even though Buddhism is fundamentally opposed to any type of killing, “we need to adjust the old-fashioned way of teaching morality. We can’t just say that abortion is a sin, abortion is bad karma. We need to understand that when a woman decides to have an abortion, it has something to do with a lack of sex education or she might have problems at home”. He explains that if Thailand refuses to legalize abortion, they must do something to address to problem of sexual education. The conflicting ideas surrounding sex and abortion rights in Thailand are resulting in confusions among many students and teenagers, leading to tens of thousands of dangerous illegal abortions being performed each year. As Judith Arcana describes in her article “Abortion is a Motherhood Issue”, the rights to abortion in Thailand should be taken out of the hands of the male-dominated government and instead left up to the discretion of the mothers.

The issues surrounding illegal abortion and lack of adequate sexual education in Thailand are clearly raising concern in the Buddhist nation. The cause for such great numbers of illegally performed abortions, however, is due to the strict legislation against legally performed abortions. The government’s control over the rights of women goes against many of the laws enacted in the United States and other nations. In her article “Abortion is a Motherhood Issue”, Arcana argues that abortion is often discussed as a separate topic from mothering when they actually should be linked. She describes how “choosing to abort a child is a profoundly made life choice for that child…we have accepted that responsibility – many of us have even accepted eternal damnation – because we believe that the choice we are making is the best one for ourselves and our babies” (226). Although Thailand is a very conservative Buddhist country, steps must be taken in order to facilitate women’s well-being if they do become pregnant out of wedlock and/or increase the knowledge and education surrounding safe sex and birth control. Arcana argues that long ago all people knew that matters of life and death of unborn children belonged in the hands of the mothers; however our current forms of government seek to limit that control. In Thailand especially, the government is primarily run by middle-aged and middle-class men who rarely if ever actually deal with the issue of abortion. As described in the BBC article, Noi (not her real name) discovered she was pregnant at the age of 17 and was told by her boyfriend that she must get an abortion or else he would leave her. She refused and is now raising the child on her own. With no child support laws or legislation to support and protect single mothers, it seems unfathomable that abortion laws would be created by men in a country where the men have no legal responsibility to the children they help produce. In addition, unmarried women with children like Noi have difficulty finding jobs in such a conservative society that frowns upon children out of wedlock. The double standards that exist surrounding the topic of abortion and single mothers in Thailand and almost everywhere else in the world are reason enough to take a step back and re-evaluate anti-abortion laws. Arcana suggests that “we need to speak of our abortions, not in the atmosphere of shame and guilt created by the spiritual and emotional terrorism of the contemporary anti-abortion movement, but in open recognition of our joy or sadness, our regret or relief – in conscious acceptance of the responsibility of our choice” (227). Her ides should be applied to Thai views on abortion as well, focusing on the rights of the individual mother as opposed to the conservative nature of society.

In 1973, the famous US court case Roe v. Wade overturned a Texas interpretation of abortion law and made abortion legal in the US in the pregnant mother’s first trimester. This court case, however, legalized abortion on the basis of the woman’s right to privacy instead of on the grounds of the morality or legality of abortion itself. After the Thai police found over 2,000 illegally aborted fetuses, questions must have been raised regarding the woman’s right to choose to have a legal abortion performed instead of having to go out and find it illegally. According to Harvey, official statistics suggest that around 300,000 abortions are carried out each year with the vast majority being performed illegally. When young women become pregnant, they are often ignorant about sexual matters in the first place so their first instinct is to panic. They try to get rid of the child in any way they can including “walk[ing] into things deliberately, fall[ing] down the stairs, get[ting] a friend to kick them in the tummy, all because they do not know what to do” (Harvey). The court case that lead to the legalization of abortion in the United States lead to a large increase in legal abortions that are overall much safer for both the mother and the fetus. As mentioned in the NYTimes article, illegally performed abortions do not always kill the children. As shown by the woman who admitted to raising eight babies who did not die in the abortion procedure, illegally performed abortions can end up very dangerous for both the mother and the child. Back-alley abortions are much riskier; however young women who have no other alternative will still choose to have one done as opposed to living ostracized in her community for having a child.

Although many of the local and international newspapers are largely framing the debate surrounding Thai women’s right to abortion as a strictly religious issue, women’s rights also need to largely be taken into account. Whether it is increasing access to birth control and sexual education or legalizing abortion, women must no longer bear the grunt of pre-marital sex. As illustrated by Noi, Thai men clearly aren’t always held to their fatherly responsibilities and yet the women are forced to have the child or find an alternative form of illegal abortion procedure. The discussion that is beginning to occur in Thailand as a result of the newly found buried fetuses is a much needed debate surrounding the role of sex in such a conservative Buddhist society. Although Thailand is a very Buddhist country, it also has a thriving sex industry including many open-air bars “with names that leave little to the imagination: ‘Red Lips’, Pretty Girls’, Spanky’s”. The contradictions between the growing liberalization of sexuality and the traditional Buddhist views have resulted in large amounts of confusion throughout society. Without the legalization of abortion or the proper sex education for young men and women, young Thai girls will continue to seek alternative, illegal and dangerous ways of terminating their pregnancies. As Phramaha Vajiramedhi says, “if you don’t want legal abortion, you have to have a better system to look after the women who go through with the pregnancy” (Harvey).