Choices Network Thailand, Tamtang and other Thai NGOs have drafted a letter to the Thai Department of Health calling for access to contraception and safe abortion to be ensured during the Covid-19 pandemic. It is addressed to the Director of the Department of Health of Thailand. It calls on them to ensure women’s access to safe abortion, which has decreased in several places since the pandemic began. It proposes the following:
- ensure that women can travel outside their province to access abortion services if need be;
- initiate measures to prevent unintended pregnancy by providing both short-acting and long-acting reversible contraceptives, particularly making post-abortion contraception accessible and widely available;
- seek strategies with other concerned agencies to ensure there is no shortage of abortion pills;
- consider integrating telemedicine for abortion into health services for the safety of both women and providers;
- raise awareness of the public and all Ministry of Public Health service providers of safe abortion services and women’s access to services:
- collect national data on current barriers to accessing safe abortion during Covid-19;
- ensure that governmental hospitals are ready to provide post-abortion care to women with complications from clandestine abortion;
- develop policies and long-term strategies to increase the number of governmental hospitals providing safe abortion services in at least one hospital in each province.
The full text of the open letter: Petition for DOH_final.docx
SUPPORT THE OPEN LETTER BY 14 MAY 2020:
1. To sign as an individual, go to this link: http://chng.it/bHBQLqNs
2. To put your organisation’s name in the open letter, write to: sulaipornc@gmail.com