Abortion politics in Cambodia social history, local forms and transnational issues

ABSTRACT

Cambodia’s current abortion rate and ratio could be among the highest in Southeast Asia. In 1997, the Cambodian parliament passed the first law regulating abortions. This law was adopted to contribute to reduce the high maternal mortality ratio, as a significant number of maternal deaths were believed to be related to complications of unsafe abortion. A decade later, the Ministry of Health had not yet established medical protocols for safe abortion access and women often continued to induce their own terminations or seek unsafe services. However, in 2009, the Cambodian authorities approved the importation and distribution of one manufactured abortion pill. In addition, manual vacuum abortions and medical abortion training programmes were implemented at the referral hospital level. How has this situation come about? What do we know about the local agencies of the transnational reproductive health policies related to safe abortion access in this country? This paper aims to analyse how history and intersections between global interventions, state policies, local moralities and individual strategies shape abortion policies, practices and technologies. Finally, our findings raise some issues for public health programming.

KEYWORDS:

• Medical/surgical abortion
• politics and practices
• human reproduction
• Cambodia

Acknowledgements

We would like to thanks our research assistants Mrs Nothy Phan, Mrs Sineath Hong and Mrs Leakhana Ith, the team at Institut Pasteur du Cambodge and all the women and men who generously participated in the research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This research was made possible, thanks to three grants. The projects, ‘Transmission of HIV, HBV and HCV in health care settings: social and cultural dimensions of hygiene in Cambodia’ ANRS 12102 (Agence Nationale de Recherches sur le Sida et les Hepatites Virales) and ‘HIV, HVB, HVC Transmission and Reproductive Health Care in Cambodia, An anthropological approach’ (Sidaction) documented various birth control issues in Cambodia. The study entitled, ‘Women, men and the abortion pill: An anthropological approach of reproductive health issues in Cambodia’ funded by the European Society of Contraception and Reproductive Health, raises specific issues on Medabon®.