ABSTRACT
A number of leading Thai academics have claimed that abortion was not recognised as an offence until 1957, when the current law was ratified. Thawit Sukphanit (1995) argues that the Three Seals Law which dates from the time of Rama I (1805 AD), stated neither about the illegality of abortion nor the punishments for a woman who aborts. He suggests that the absence of legal restrictions proves that Thai women were free to have abortions, and argues ‘this right was equal for all women and not limited by class or situation’ (1995: 31). This equality and freedom was disrupted when Thai law became ‘civilised’ and the Three Seals Law was replaced by the 1908 criminal code (Sukphanit 1995). This account of the history of the present Thai abortion law is being promoted by a number of Thai feminists (see Ratchukul 1999). A newspaper article in the Bangkok Post, for example, quotes leading Thai feminist academic and activist, Kritaya Archavanichkul as stating that until 1957, no distinction was made between abortion and miscarriage and that ‘the anti-abortion law [post 1957] reflects indiscriminate adoption of westernization by Thai technocrats . . . [which] only stemmed from certain western interpretations of Christianity’.1
