The small clinic in Bang Khen in the north of Bangkok opens its doors every morning at 8.30 a.m.
Then, one after the other, pregnant women who do not want to have their child enter.
It's between 10 and 30 women every day.
Nurse Pathititip Sakdavisarux is sitting at the reception desk, she calls the women and invites them into the treatment room.
Sakdavisarux has been working at the clinic for 30 years, she gives tours of the ward early in December before the patients arrive.
Displays ultrasound machines, medicine kits, charts explaining the female body;
she says: Up to the seventh week, the pregnancy is terminated with medication.
Then with an invasive procedure called vacuum aspiration, the suction method.
»We examine the pregnant women and clarify: What is the most suitable method for the abortion?«
The clinic is run by the Planned Parenthood Association of Thailand, an association of doctors working to improve women's health in Thailand.
The organization operates two such clinics in Bangkok, nine spread across the country.
She advises women on contraceptive methods, carries out gynecological examinations and fertility treatments.
And then: abortion.
In 2020, Thailand's Constitutional Court ruled that existing abortion laws were unconstitutional following a lawsuit filed by a gynaecologist.
Since the beginning of 2021, abortions have been legal up to the twelfth week of pregnancy;
after appropriate advice and assessment by a doctor, even up to the 20th week of pregnancy: in the event of rape or if pregnancy or childbirth pose a health risk for the woman.
Previously, abortions were only allowed in Thailand in exceptional cases: fines and imprisonment of three to five years applied to those who aborted or assisted.
Even before the change in the law, women had found ways not to have their children.
Illegal abortions ran into the hundreds of thousands in 2019: Some clinics offered the service in secret.
However, many pregnant women chose unsafe paths, ending up with self-appointed healers.
Which greatly increased the risk of bleeding to death from an abortion or at least suffering damage to one's health.
Strict abortion laws had also led to high rates of teenage pregnancy.
According to the United Nations Population Fund, 16 percent of all babies in Thailand in 2016 were born to minors.
The example of Thailand shows that changing the law is not enough when it comes to access to abortion.
They are the decisive basis for decriminalizing abortions.
But it also takes the will and the ability of hospitals to set up appropriate medical care for women.
And: The rethinking of a society that had learned for generations that it is a crime not to have a child.
Because despite the legalization, doctors, women's organizations and the national emergency hotline for unwanted pregnancies "1663" are sounding the alarm: Pregnant women, especially those on low incomes, still do not have adequate access to safe abortions.
"Many women don't even know that abortion has long been legal in Thailand," says Supecha Baotip.
She is the founder of Tam Tang, an organization that provides women with online counseling on unwanted pregnancy.
For years, Baotip and her team had brokered clinics that secretly performed abortions.
They called it the "Secret Service."
Now they can refer to official hospitals, however: There are hardly any who carry out the procedures.
In Bangkok, the city with more than ten million people, there are only four clinics;
a total of 108 clinics in Thailand offer the service, spread across 46 provinces.
In rural areas, there is usually no offer at all within reach.
Baotip welcomes us to her office in northern Bangkok, on the ground floor of a residential area.
On the wall is a poster that reads "Abortion, Abortion, Abortion" in Thai, and lapel pins in a china bowl that read "No abortion should be unsafe."
Baotip sent letters to 11 hospitals to ask:
Why are you still not offering abortions?
The result was that clinics were taken by surprise by the change in the law that came into force in the middle of the corona pandemic.
There is a lack of medical equipment, staff and capacity.
Medical students at the universities do not learn the practice of abortion.
They are not part of the curriculum.
Many clinics still turned patients away, falsely claiming that abortion was still illegal.
The low supply drives the prices up.
A demolition costs up to 5000 Thai baht, about 140 euros.
Too expensive for many women.
The Thai Office for Health Security NHSO pays up to 80 euros.
But the applications are full of bureaucratic hurdles.
The biggest problem, says Baotip, is religion.
Many doctors refused to perform abortions because they are considered a sin in Buddhism.
Clinics do not dare to write on their websites that they are dropping out – they are too afraid of losing their reputation.
When it comes to the stigmas and taboos surrounding unwanted pregnancy, Buddhism plays a big role.
Thousands of women who have had abortions attend Buddhist ceremonies each year to wash away their perceived sins.
The Wat Kae temple in the province of Suphan Buri, for example, is known for such rituals.
Buddhist monks are quoted in newspapers as saying that the spirit of an aborted child haunts a woman throughout her life.
In 2010, 2,000 fetuses were found in small plastic bags in a temple in Bangkok;
a clinic that had illegally performed abortions at the time had sent her there as if for absolution.
The nurse Sakdavisarux from the clinic in Bang Khen also hears the pregnant women's fear of the stigma every day: »Many women feel guilty as soon as they enter our clinic.
You grew up believing that abortion is a sin from which it is almost impossible to break free.
In the family, it often means ostracism, exclusion,” she says.
In her counseling sessions, she needs a lot of time to calm the women down.
Many questions from the pregnant woman have less to do with the medical intervention itself and more to do with the social environment: How can I be sure that my parents and my employer don't notice anything?
How can I live with the guilt?
Memey's way
Memay knows what it means to be on your own in Thailand with an unwanted pregnancy.
She has blonde bangs, tattoos, a heart piercing in her left nostril.
Two years ago, Memay felt she was losing control of her life.
She was 25 and pregnant when abortion was illegal.
"I'm convinced that what I experienced will continue to go through many women, especially in rural areas," she says.
For most girls and women who become pregnant, the new laws have hardly changed anything.
You still can't find any help.
Memay says she didn't realize she was pregnant until she was three months old.
The female body, her health, sexuality, contraception - many girls in Thailand grow up without education.
“Everything I knew about sex and my body I knew from Instagram reels,” says Memay.
The thought of becoming a mother caused her great physical stress.
Precisely because she had no secure income at the time, making money selling pork belly and sticky rice on the side of the road.
"I had absolutely no money and then I was pregnant," says Memay.
No more sleep at night, just questions without answers:
How am I supposed to finance a child?
How should I tell my parents?
Eventually, she googles how to do it: terminate a pregnancy.
When she was five months pregnant, Memay finally found a hospital in Bangkok that agreed to perform the procedure: Klongtan Hospital, a private clinic that is one of the main points of contact for pregnant women in need.
Memay and her boyfriend scraped together all the money they had.
18,000 Thai baht, just under 500 euros.
Just enough to pay for the trip to Bangkok and the hospital.
Her boyfriend waited in the hospital corridor while Memay was operated on inside.
Memay says she has never regretted the abortion.
But she still avoided talking to anyone about it.
Girlfriends, family, nobody knows anything about this time.
The pain and the fear, she had to deal with it all by herself.
"I don't want other young women to feel like a criminal when they get into this situation, like I do," says Memay.
She is now involved with the organization Tam Tang. Explains to girls in her home village that abortions are legal – and tries to convince schools to make sex education part of the curriculum.
She organizes information events: Where can a pregnant woman turn to in need?
Is committed to finally founding a health center there in the country.
Together with fellow campaigners, she calls for an education campaign by the Ministry of Health.
The message that women have a choice when they are pregnant must finally be discussed in society.
As long as there is no discourse, nothing will change in people's minds, says Memay.
The new law, she says, only really protects women if they know about it.
Only when every girl, every boy in Thailand learns: The question –
will I become a mother or will I not become a mother
– is one that every pregnant woman can answer for herself.
Collaboration: Mhai Janjira Lintong
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