Background

Many is a medical student, online sexual health councillor and women’s rights campaigner with a diverse history of taking action. For the past three years, her activism has been focused on increasing access to sexual and reproductive health information and destigmatising abortion. Within this she also strives to inspire more of her fellow medical students to get involved in advocacy for sexual and reproductive health issues.

Many volunteers weekly as an online sexual health councillor for Lovecare Station, an online platform that offers free counselling services to people with questions on birth control, emergency contraception, and unplanned pregnancy. Apart from giving people information on safe sex practices and pregnancy prevention, they also help connect people to safe and legal abortion services. Many is also currently assembling a team of medical students interested in creating content for Lovecare’s website.

Many also serves as the Thailand’s National Officer for SCORA, the Steering Committee of Sexual and Reproductive Health Including HIV/AIDS. In 2020 Many plans to use her role as National Officer to expand their safe abortion workshop programme to more medical schools across the country. This way, more medical students will have the opportunity to talk to abortion providers, activists, and recipients, and learn about abortion from a more humanized perspective.

Tell us briefly why you are passionate about being involved with SheDecides?

“In Thailand, sex is still largely stigmatized. Many teachers are more comfortable promoting abstinence over safe sex, with only 25% of students reporting having seen an in-class condom demonstration (UNICEF, 2016). The government still struggles to promote public awareness of abortion legislation, leaving many to believe that the service is illegal. Thailand’s lack of conversation on safe sex and abortion means that we lose countless women to unsafe abortions every year. In order for this to stop, people have to have better access to accurate sexual and reproductive health information, and future doctors have to be taught that abortion is a health right.”