Abortion, Sin and the State in Thailand Abortion is one of the most controversial issues of our age, yet most studies centre on the debate in Western countries. This book discusses abortion in Thailand, where, although abortion is illegal, between 200,000 and 300,000 abortions are performed each year by a variety of methods. Based on extensive original research in the field, the book analyses the abortion debate in Thailand, including stories of the real-life dilemmas facing women, situational ethics, popular representations of abortion in the media, the history and the politics of the debate. The work highlights women’s subjective experiences and perceptions of abortion, and places these ‘women’s stories’in an analysis of broader conflicts over gender, religion, nationalism and modernity, and the global politics of reproductive health. Andrea Whittaker is a Joint Lecturer at the Key Centre for Women’s Health in Society and the Melbourne Institute of Asian Languages and Societies, University of Melbourne. She is a medical anthropologist whose primary research interests relate to reproductive health, gender and development in Thailand and Australia. Her previous books include Intimate Knowledge: Women and their health in North-East Thailand. Asian Studies Association of Australia Women in Asia Series Editor: Louise Edwards (Australian National University) Editorial Board: Susan Blackburn (Monash University) John Butcher (Griffith University) Vera Mackie (Curtin University) Anne McLaren (Melbourne University) Mina Roces (University of New South Wales) Andrea Whittaker (Melbourne University) Mukkuvar Women: Gender, Hegemony and Capitalist Transformation in a South Indian Fishing Community Kalpana Ram 1991 A World of Difference: Islam and Gender Hierarchy in Turkey Julie Marcus 1992 Purity and Communal Boundaries: Women and Social Change in a Bangladeshi Village Santi Rozario 1992 Madonnas and Martyrs: Militarism and Violence in the Philippines Anne-Marie Hilsdon 1995 Masters and Managers: A Study of Gender Relations in Urban Java Norma Sullivan 1995 Matriliny and Modernity: Sexual Politics and Social Change in Rural Malaysia Maila Stivens 1995 Intimate Knowledge: Women and their health in North-East Thailand Andrea Whittaker 2000 Women in Asia: Tradition, Modernity and Globalisation Edited by Louise Edwards and Mina Roces 2000 Violence against Women in Asian Societies: Gender Inequality and Technologies of Violence Edited by Lenore Manderson and Linda Rae Bennett 2003 Women’s Employment in Japan: The Experience of Part-time Workers Kaye Broadbent 2003 Chinese Women – Living and Working Edited by Anne McLaren 2004 Abortion, Sin and the State in Thailand Andrea Whittaker 2004 Abortion, Sin and the State in Thailand Andrea Whittaker First published 2004 by RoutledgeCurzon 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by RoutledgeCurzon 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004. RoutledgeCurzon is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group © 2004 Andrea Whittaker All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-42944-3 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-68071-5 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0–415–33652–X(Print Edition ) Contents List of illustrations vii Series editor’s foreword ix Preface xi Acknowledgements xv Note on the transcription system xvii 1 Introduction: bearing politics 1 2 Abortion, sin and the state 11 3 A history of the abortion debate 29 4 Conceiving the nation: representations of abortion in Thailand 66 5 Corrupt girls, victims of men, desperate women: representations of women who abort 91 6 ‘A small sin’: everyday acts 109 7 ‘The truth of our day-by-day lives’: situational ethics 129 8 Global debates, local dilemmas 148 Appendix I 158 Appendix II 161 Glossary of Thai terms 163 Notes 165 Bibliography 176 Index 187 Illustrations Plates 3.1 Cartoon showing Chamlong as a protective hard-working stork 49 3.2 Cartoon from The Nation newspaper in 1981 50 3.3 Cartoon published in Thai Rath newspaper 61 4.1 The backcover image from the 1981 booklet Tham thaeng...Khong sut thai haeng haiyanatham 71 4.2 An image from the booklet Tham thaeng...Khong sut thai haeng haiyanatham (Abortion: the last curve on the road to moral catastrophe) 72 4.3 Cartoon showing members of parliament voting in favour of the abortion bill 81 4.4 Cartoon from Ban Meuang newspaper 82 4.5 The ‘Democracy Hospital’ cartoon that appeared in Thai Rath 86 4.6 Image from Siam Rath 87 4.7 Cartoon depicting a series of word pictures linking abortion with political corruption and failures of democracy 87 Table A.1 Participants in focus group discussions on abortion 160 Boxes 2.1 Summary of the current Thai abortion law 13 3.1 The articles relating to abortion in the Royal Penal Code of Siam, 1 June 1908 34 Series editor’s foreword The contributions of women to the social, political and economic transformations occurring in the Asian region are legion. Women have served as leaders of nations, communities, workplaces, activist groups and families. Asian women have joined with others to participate in fomenting change at the micro and macro levels. They have been both agents and targets of national and international inter- ventions in social policy at the level of the household and family. In the perform- ance of these myriad roles women have forged new and modern gendered identities that are recognisably global and local. Their life experiences are rich, diverse and instructive. The books in this series testify to the central role women play in creating the new Asia and re-creating Asian womanhood. Moreover, these books attest to the resilience and inventiveness of women around the Asian region in the face of entrenched and evolving patriarchal social norms. Scholars publishing in this series demonstrate a commitment to promoting the productive conversation between Women’s Studies and Asian Studies. The need to understand the diversity of experiences of femininity and womanhood around the world increases inexorably as globalisation proceeds apace. Lessons from the experiences of Asian women present us with fresh opportunities for building new possibilities for women’s progress the world over. The Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA) sponsors this publication series as part of its ongoing commitment to promoting knowledge about women in Asia. In particular, the ASAA women’s caucus provides the intellectual vigour and enthusiasm that maintains the Women in Asia Series (WIAS). The aim of the series, since its inception in 1992, is to promote knowledge about women in Asia to both the academic and general audiences. To this end, WIAS books draw on a wide range of disciplines including anthropology, sociology, political science, cultural studies and history. The Series could not function without the generous professional advice provided by many anonymous readers. WIAS, its authors and the ASAA are very grateful to these people for their expert work. Louise Edwards Australian National University Preface A close friend of mine experienced an unplanned pregnancy in her early forties. It was her struggle to decide to have an abortion that has influenced me in writ- ing about this topic for other women in other places and in another time. We rarely speak of her experience, what difficult negotiations must have occurred between her and her husband, what promises made, what desires and needs aban- doned, the relief and grief. The period surrounding her decision was one of tumul- tuous emotions and ambivalence. Although she recognises the need for her decision she remains ambivalent. She has difficulty reconciling the termination with her desires and identity as a loving mother, proud of her children. In periods of vulnerability, her unfulfillable desires find expression in nostalgia for a child that never was. This merges with her grief and guilt over an earlier miscarriage, a wanted pregnancy. Sometimes she speaks with relief at her decision, at other moments she speaks with anger and blame that she fell pregnant at all. Because of the ban on abortion at that time in Queensland, Australia, she flew to Sydney in the state of New South Wales and had a termination. She flew home the same day. Beforehand she warned her children not to tell their schoolmates of her pregnancy. It was several years before she entered a Catholic Church and undertook confession to a priest; not that she had been an active Catholic before her abortion, but the generational legacy of her mother’s faith demanded recon- ciliation. Although her confessor was sympathetic and absolved her, she has never returned. This book is written for her and for all women who have ever faced difficult choices. Her story is unique, her experience is not meant to highlight anything universal about the experience of women aborting, her ambivalence is not shared by all women who abort, many do so with much relief and no regret. Rather, it was shar- ing her emotional pain that has influenced my approach in this text. It reinforced the need to respect the women with whom and of whom I speak, to problematise any simplistic interpretation of motives or account of their experiences. My fum- bling questions forced their explication of previously secreted knowledges, demanding a level of introspection, self-objectification and narrative closure that many perhaps had not previously performed for other ears. Through me xii Preface and through this text their partial meanings became articulate, some perhaps felt confronted by the memories uncovered, no doubt many felt in their narratives the need to craft excuses, assert respectability to an outsider.