(1) Agencies which are
responsible for family planning programmes should be given adequate
financial support and provided with sufficient manpower to enable them to
successfully implement these programmes and to attain the family planning
objectives. One of the objectives is to render services to a total of 3.03
million people including those already practicing family planning as well as
new receptors.
(2) Official regulations
relating to subsidies for meeting expenses in raising children, for medical
treatment and for educational purposes, as well as the allowance for
maternal leave which are granted to civil servants and personnel of state
enterprises should be revised and made consistent with family planning
objectives. At present, these subsidies and benefits are given to all
children of civil servants and staff of state enterprises with no limitation
on the number of children. In future, these subsidies and benefits should
only be available for the first four children of each civil servant or staff
member of state enterprises. These new regulations, however, should not be
applied to those who already have more than four children.
(3) The law stipulating
that sterilization treatment be given only to women who have given birth to
at least four children should be revised. The desire for sterilization
treatment should be left to the discretion of the applicants and should not
be judged by the authorities concerned on the basis of the number of
children.
(4) At present there are a
number of abortion clinics rendering services to pregnant women who do not
wish to have children. Some clinics do not provide adequate medical
treatment and endanger the lives of those undergoing this treatment. Due to
this malpractice, there are many who have to be hospitalized after receiving
this treatment. This puts an additional strain on the medical services
provided by the Government and thorough research on the positive and
negative effects of these abortion practices should be carried out.
Regulation 305 of the Criminal Code of Law relating to abortion which
stipulates that doctors can only provide abortion treatment to preserve a
woman’s health or social position (when a woman is pregnant after being
raped), should be revised so that abortion can legally be performed for a
number of other valid reasons. This would help to limit the number of
illegal abortions and related strains on medical services provided by the
Government.
(5) The Labour Protection
Act should be revised to allow employers to reduce the amount of privileges
related to maternal leave from the fifth child onwards. Moreover, the
Government should to steps to persuade private concerns that provide
maternity and child support for their staff to follow the Government’s
example by limiting such benefits to the first four children of their staff.
Exemption should be given to those who have been promised this right prior
to the application of this revision.
(6) Fiscal incentives that
have been used successfully in other countries to reduce birth rates should
be carefully studied and adapted for use in Thailand.
(7) The Government should
pay for the sterilization costs for male and female low-ranking officials,
government employees, and personnel of state enterprises.
(8) Other public and
private agencies besides the Ministry of Public Health should take a more
active role in promoting and providing family planning services. This would
include the provision of technical assistance, equipment and medical
supplies.
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