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Date: August 9th, 2001, The Nation

Student abortions increasing

The number of young female students who are terminating their pregnancies in abortion clinics in Chiang Mai has risen at an alarming rate, a health official said yesterday.

Dr Surasing Wissarutrat said the problem of unwanted pregnancies among young students had reached a "critical'' stage.

"About 90 per cent of high school students in some schools said they have had a sexual relationship. They are not aware of safe sex and protection against pregnancy.''

Surasing has conducted research since 1999 and has written a report on the subject entitled "Unwanted Pregnancy Among Teenagers in Chiang Mai". He says Mathayom 3, or ninth grade students, are the biggest group of students who fall pregnant.

In the six months since the Chiang Mai Provincial Health Office launched "Friends Corner", a youth consultant service, 400 teenagers ranging from primary to high school students sought advice on sex and sexual transmitted disease and unwanted pregnancy.

"There is a group of students who are not from poor but from middle class families who live life in the fast lane, partying, going out, drinking, wearing expensing clothes," Surasing said. "When they are short of money, they sell their bodies for money in order to maintain their lifestyle.''

Surasing said as his research progressed, he found that the problem was not small but had spread to a large group of students who later suffered from sexual diseases and unwanted pregnancies.

Dr Suporn Kerdsawang of Sirirat Hospital's Medical Faculty called for the expansion of Friends Corners to reach more teenagers, such as those working in department stores and factories.