Abortion advocates on Wednesday submitted a petition to Dr Thossaporn Sereerak, a Pheu Thai Party MP for Phrae and member of the House committee on public health, demanding easier access to abortion.
Supecha Baotip from Tamtang Group, a safe abortion advocacy group, said pregnant women at 12–20 weeks of gestation can apply for a medical abortion but it is hard to find legal services to accommodate this.
"Although the law already allows for abortions, in practice women who experience an unwanted pregnancy and want access to safe abortion services find it difficult to access legal pregnancy termination services. It is no different from when the law was amended in September, 2022," Ms Supecha said.
The group has urged the committee to demand the Ministry of Public Health increase the number of safe abortion services that receive a budget from the National Health Security Office (NHSO), to ensure they cover the entire country. It has also demanded a list of safe abortion service centres and measures to promote safe terminations.
Ms Supecha said the group ran a survey and found nothing has changed much for women seeking access to legal abortion services since the law took effect as such services are not widely available nationwide. The service fees also remain high, starting from 3,000-20,000 baht, depending on the length of gestation.
Although the NHSO provides a free service for its gold card members to access medical abortions, hospitals have refused to provide this service, claiming that no doctors are available, Ms Supecha said.
The group's network conducted a survey of doctors and found most did not want to provide abortions for a number of reasons, including religious beliefs. "Safe abortion services are still inaccessible for most people in need, just like when these services were illegal," Ms Supecha added.
The group also suggested the NHSO accept complaints from those who have been denied abortions from hospitals. The Public Health Ministry, meanwhile, has called for abortions to be provided remotely via telemedicine, said Ms Supecha.
Before, carrying out abortions was already challenging as a doctor's opinion was needed first as to whether a woman could safely undergo such a procedure.
Today, the problem is still stuck on that first step of being able to access a doctor who is willing to give a medical opinion, even before providing the service, Dr Thossaporn added.
So, the committee will invite the Ministry of Public Health, the NHSO, state agencies and the Tamtang Group to come up with a policy guideline for the ministry to observe, he said.