You are cordially invited to a special seminar by Dr. Chalidaporn Songsamphan. The details are as follows.

Speaker: Dr. Chalidaporn Songsamphan, Associate Professor, Department of Politics and Government, Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University

TITLE:’Unready’ Pregnancy and Reproductive Autonomy:
Culture and Public Contestation on Abortion in Thai Society

DATE AND TIME: 15:30-17:00, Wednesday 15th February 2017

VENUE: Middle-size Meeting Room(Room No. 332), Inamori Foundation Memorial Building, CSEAS, Kyoto University.

ABSTRACT:
The political contestation on unintended pregnancy and abortion in Thai society has continued for decades, but it is quite different from the dichotomy between pro-life™ and €˜pro-choice€™ positions. Different rounds of public debates and legal attempts reflect the clash between popular Buddhism, the notion of morality linking with Victorian/middle-class sexuality, modern medicine, and the liberal principles of rights and liberty. The attempts to revise the law of the state in order to allow women to make decision regarding their own reproduction and to access safe medical services have repeatedly failed.

However, Thai women, as well as women in other societies, did not limit their options within the scope that the law permits them to do. The choice network comprises mainly of different non-governmental organizations, with different positions on unwanted pregnancy and abortion, was organized and sustained to work together to meet the specific needs of women facing the situation of unintended pregnancy. It seems that the Thai law on abortion does not change, but the civil society developed a collective approach to deal with the situations of women.

The presentation, based on the research work on Public Contestation on Unready Pregnancy/Abortion in Thai Society will elaborate how different groups confronted and debated on this issue. Also, the negotiation between women and the counselors/doctors to push the legal limit to get the service they wanted will be discussed.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Chalidaporn Songsamphan is an associate professor of political science at Thammasat University in Bangkok. She is currently the head of Department of Politics and Government, a Vice-President of the Association of Asian Women’s Studies (AAWS), and the president of the Service Workers in Groups Foundation (SWING). Her main research interest include feminist political theory, politics of sexuality, and gender – based/sexual violence. Her current research projects are “Femininity, Pop Culture and Beauty Industry”and “Supernatural Prophecy: Construction/Reflection of Hope and Fear in Thai Politics.”
Some of her publications are:
“The Political and Gender Power Relations: Contemporary Discourse on Sexuality in Thai Society,” in _Women’s Studies in Thailand: Power, Knowledge and Justice, edited by Suwanna Satha-anand (Seoul, South Korea: Ewha Womans University Press, 2004; History of Sexuality: Sexual History/Sexuality in Thai History (2008); “Localizing Feminism: Women’s Voices and Social Activism in Thai Context” (2011); Reproductive Autonomy and Public Policy: Contestation on Unintended Pregnancy/Abortion in Thai Society (forthcoming).

This seminar is supported by MEXT Research Program Promoting the Stdy of Sustainable Humanosphere in Southeast Asia.

MODERATOR: Yoko HAYAMI, CSEAS, Kyoto University