On 24 June, a 50-year-old woman was arrested in her home in Phuket town on suspicion of performing ?illegal? abortions.

Also taken to the police station was her 20-year-old patient, who was five months pregnant and seeking a termination.

Although the would-be-abortionist was in fact a trained nurse, many ?backyard practitioners? who perform the procedure in Thailand are not.

This, however, does not deter an estimated 300,00 Thai women a year seeking them out and undergoing the highly dangerous and ?illegal? procedure.

Post-operation, it is quite common for the young women to go straight from the ?backyard clinics? to hospitals to receive life-saving post-abortion treatment.

Since a revision in the law in 1957, it is widely recognised that a woman may legally have her pregnancy terminated in cases of risk to her physical health or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or other sexual crimes. In these cases, she may therefore go to a hospital to have the procedure performed.

In 2005, the Medical Council of Thailand added to that very short list the preservation of a woman?s mental health as an acceptable condition in seeking a termination of pregnancy. Therefore if a woman believes that having a child could cause anxiety or depression or even ?sadness?, she is fully in her rights to apply for an abortion.

Mechai Viravaidya, who has been credited with popularizing the use of condoms in Thailand and is a regular campaigner for safe sex, family planning and pro-choice rights for Thai women, said that the root of the problem therefore wasn?t the actual law, but a lack of knowledge of it.

?Abortion is not illegal in Thailand, young women need to know that if they can have it proved by two doctors that having a baby would cause them anxiety or depression then trained doctors can perform the procedure.?

The difficulty, Khun Mechai explains, is that many Thai people are unaware of the 2005 change in the law, including many police officers, and even if they did know, it isn?t necessarily indicative of a willingness to act upon it.

?Most doctors are aware of the law, but knowing something and doing something about it are completely different. There?s also certain police officers that indulge in what is known as rent keeping behaviour, and some doctors are fearful that they may lose their practice if they are ?found? to have acted in an ?illegal? manner?.?

Khun Mechai said that no doctor has ever been prosecuted for performing an illegal abortion.

So although a woman may know she is legally entitled to seek a termination of her pregnancy on grounds of damage to her mental wellbeing and a doctor is also aware yet is unwilling to perform the procedure either because of personal moral objections or fear of police remonstration, then the doctor can of course refuse to perform the operation.

?Prostitution, gambling and vote buying are all illegal in Thailand, but just because people know something doesn?t mean a thing,? said the outspoken activist.
K. Mehcai believes that Thai women and couples shouldn?t give up seeking a safe and legal termination to their pregnancy though and suggested those in rural areas go to Had Yai and Bangkok, if of course they have the funds to do so.

Nongluk Boonthai, Hon. Secreatry General of the Women?s Health and Reproductive Rights Foundation of Thailand said that it is often boils down money.

?Most young women can't get access to a safe service at public hospitals because of the negative attitude and unwillingness to perform an abortion by most Thai physicians and private hospital fees meanwhile are too high for low-income women.?

In fact K. Mechai has his own clinic right next to his flagship safe sex-themed restaurant ?Cabbages and Condoms?, in Bangkok. Symbolic of how intertwined issues of safe sex, prostitution and family planning issues are in Thailand is the existence of a massage parlour in the same block, right next to the family planning clinic.

This dichotomy, although certainly not exclusive to Thailand, is one that K. Mechai among others believes needs to change and the sooner the better: ?The real question to ask is if your 17-year-old daughter or sister became pregnant what would you want her to do? Drop out of school to have the baby and ruin her life?

?I think if everyone is open and honest about it they would answer almost universally that the best option would be to have a termination, but Thai society as a whole is not ready to be so open yet.?

So unfortunately, despite the change in the law and constant work by Khun Mechai as well as the WHRRF and other organisations to raise awareness of safe sex and women?s rights in Thailand, wilful ignorance, culture and history are all proving hard to compete against.
In November 2010, over 2000 foetal remains were discovered in individual plastic bags at 3 different temple crematoriums in Thailand, underlying the existence of something much deeper than just a lack of knowledge of the law in the equation.

Kamheang Chaturachinda, President of WHRRF explained, ?Abortion is still regarded socially as immoral and sinful, even in some medical circles.? Khun Kamheang and the WHRRF therefore advocate a complete societal shift in how pregnancy terminations are perceived.

Khun Nongluk of the WHRRF said, ?There needs to be a paradigm change from looking at a termination of pregnancy as a morality and legal issue to an issue concerning public health and women?s right to have access to a safe abortion service.?

K. Nongluk would also like to see the decriminalization of the abortion law altogether, ?Pregnancy under 12 weeks should be a matter between the woman and her physician rather than one between the state and the women.?

As of August 2011, this is unfortunately still not the case, and Phuket-based university student could be facing up to 3 years in jail and 6,000 baht in fines, while her backyard physician is likely to face a jail term of up to five years and a fine of up to 10,000 baht.