After having an unwanted pregnancy years ago, Supecha Boatip could think of no better solution than having an abortion after seeing an advertisement for an illegal clinic posted in a random minibus. More than 20 years have passed and she has since turned the bad experience into something positive and beneficial to society.
Now Supecha works as an activist supporting safe abortion and giving women accurate information about the procedure.
“My goal back then was to finish my master’s degree, so I wasn’t ready to have kids,” recalled Supecha, 49. She said she became pregnant partly because of her own misunderstanding of contraceptive pills. “I was a 25-year-old woman with an education, but still I didn’t know how to take those pills. When I look back, it makes me wonder about how little sex and birth control education are being taught in Thai schools.”
Thailand has the second-highest number of premature pregnancies in Southeast Asia, with approximately 300,000 women having illegal abortions per year. Apart from the lack of proper education, Supecha — who was one of the speakers at the “Fixing Tomboy And Repairing Dee Is Violence. Stop It” forum held recently at Thammasat University — suggested that negative attitudes toward sexual behaviour and the perception of gender stereotypes in society should be taken into consideration and needs to be changed.
Many Thais still cling to the attitude that they degrade themselves by having premarital sex. If a woman becomes pregnant unexpectedly and seeks an abortion, regardless of reasons or necessities, they’re the first to be blamed.
Following the incident in 2010 in which more than 2,000 foetuses were found at Wat Phai Ngern in Bangkok, and in which mothers of these dead babies were branded evil, Supecha complained that there is no place for these women to speak up for their right to an abortion.
“We have the freedom to choose our own path, because we know what is good for us,” she said.
Therefore, in 2011, she started her own website, tamtang.wordpress.com, initially to speak openly about her own abortion. Being a judgement-free zone, the website encouraged more women with this experience to anonymously post their stories.
Later on, the website offered information about abortion clinics authorised by the Department of Health, where to get safe abortion pills, and other advice for women with undesired pregnancies.
Most women who have come for advice are between the ages of 20 and 25. Some of them have had children but decided to terminate their pregnancy as they consider it a family-planning protocol.
“These women well realise that it takes a lot to raise a child properly and that it is too much for them to do so at that moment. They are well aware that it won’t be good for the child to live with an unprepared mother.”
Supecha is adamant that an abortion should be carried out under the care of medical specialists; otherwise, it can result in death. By giving accurate information, more women’s lives will be saved and unsafe services from illegal clinics will likely disappear.
In a nutshell, Supecha does not support illegal or unsafe abortion. She only intends to provide accurate information about the procedure. Despite her good intentions, she and other activists for abortion rights in Thailand are often attacked by anti-abortion opponents, who believe abortion is a terrible sin and is against Buddhist principles.
“If we took abortion as a sin, then it would be the sin that everyone in the society commits together,” she said. “Schools are wrong, as they don’t provide proper sex education. Friends are wrong, for not being there when help is needed. Society is wrong, for producing biased gender ideology and attitudes on sex.”
Above all, Supecha insisted that the decision to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy or continue it is up to women to decide, and no one else should ever judge their reasons.
“Because abortion is not fun at all,” she said, recalling her own experience at an illegal clinic. “No one knew that I was there, so nobody would know if I died. Before I passed out, I realised that I was responsible for the decision I’ve made for myself. This has been the most precious lesson of my whole life.”
This source first appeared on Bangkok Post Lifestyle.