ABORTION SCANDAL

Former nurse took over after doctor closed down the clinic; repents ‘sins’

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< script language=JavaScript1.1 src="http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/ads?client=ca-pub-1044823792492543&output=js&lmt=1291808852&num_ads=3&channel=4768931034&ad_type=text&adtest=off&ea=0&feedback_link=on&flash=10.0.45.2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationmultimedia.com%2F2010%2F11%2F19%2Fnational%2FI-care-for-8-survivors-abortionist-30142573.html&dt=1291808852540&shv=r20101117&jsv=r20101206&saldr=1&correlator=1291808852570&frm=0&adk=1196794184&ga_vid=1491047025.1291808853&ga_sid=1291808853&ga_hid=588264459&ga_fc=0&u_tz=480&u_his=1&u_java=1&u_h=768&u_w=1024&u_ah=738&u_aw=1024&u_cd=32&u_nplug=0&u_nmime=0&biw=999&bih=546&ref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationmultimedia.com%2F2010%2F12%2F08%2Fnational%2FThai-students-score-poor-marks-in-world-survey-30143971.html&fu=0&ifi=1&dtd=60">< /script>The horrific discovery of about 300 human foetuses in a Bangkok temple has led to a rundown building o­n Phetkasem Road where illegal abortions were performed for years • and subsequently to the story of an abortion worker who ended up caring for eight kids, unwanted by their biological mothers, who survived the procedure.

An arrested undertaker implicated former nurse assistant Lanchakorn Janthamanas, 33, as the o­ne who hired him at Bt200 per foetus to put them in the temple pending cremation.

Yesterday she revealed her side of the story.
“I started taking the job by myself in the middle of last year. Before that, I helped a female doctor in her 50s who did it for young women, including some famous actresses. Sometimes the babies survived the abortion, and I had to raise five children, the eldest o­ne of which is now nine years old. After the clinic shut down, I took over the place, renting it at Bt10,000 a month,” Lanchakorn said.

She learned how to perform the operation from observing another nurse assistant as she helped a doctor with the abortions.

Previously, she had taken the foetuses from her network of abortionists around Bangkok and Pathum Thani and giving them to the undertaker to hide inside a pyre. Monks, without knowing, would perform a prayer for the dead foetuses during another person’s funeral. Lanchakorn charged her network Bt500 per foetus and gave the undertaker Bt200.

After the clinic shut down, she told her network she would perform the abortions they couldn’t. Most clinics performed abortions o­nly in early pregnancy rather than in later terms, which were riskier and more painful.

She said eight-month-pregnancy abortions could sometimes leave babies alive, so she ended up raising a total of eight such children.

“I commit sin [abortions] every day, so if the kids won’t die, there’s no need to kill them. And I want to have children because I can’t, possibly due to the sin,” she said. All the kids are legal, as she had relatives upcountry to pay bribes at Bt10,000-Bt20,000 per child to get them Thai nationality.

Police yesterday collected Lanchakorn’s evidence in preparation for the first detention-period application at Taling Chan Court this morning, while also interrogating the undertaker who reportedly confessed to disposing of the foetuses for Bt200 a time. The Prachabodi Centre also contacted police about information o­n the eight children who survived.

After allegations of bribery of a hospital to issue certificates for the children, Public Health Minister Jurin Laksanawisit said officials would probe and, if guilty, punish offenders with a two-year jail term and a Bt40,000 fine.

Health Department chief Somyos Deerassami said that of 1 million women who got pregnant each year, it was estimated that about 150,000 miscarried and some 150,000 aborted the pregnancies, mostly teenagers or those unprepared for motherhood.

Yesterday an eight-month-old male foetus was found dumped in an irrigation waterway behind Din Daeng Flat 4 Building 8.

It has undergone an autopsy and the case is being investigated by police.

The nation- Bangkok.