Nurse nabbed over illegal abortion clinic

NAKHON RATCHASIMA: A nurse has been arrested for allegedly running an illegal private abortion clinic in the central district of this northeastern province.

The suspect was identified as Suwanna Kaewsawang, 56, who previously worked as a nurse at private hospitals in Muang district.

She was apprehended in her room at a national public housing apartment in tambon Nong Chabok at around 9.30pm on Thursday.

Abortion paraphernalia and pills were found in the room, police said.

The raid was jointly launched by police from the intellectual property enforcement centre and Provincial Police Region 3, which supervises the Northeast, after a suspect detained earlier for selling abortion pills alleged they were purchased from Ms Suwanna.

An undercover female officer then posed as a pregnant woman who wanted an abortion, which was priced around 7,000 baht.

Ms Suwanna took the officer to her room, which was equipped as an illegal abortion clinic. Police arrested her afterwards.

According to investigators, Ms Suwanna confessed she had induced abortions in over 100 women, many of them university students.

She had trained as a nurse and worked at several private hospitals in the province before resigning to run her own clinic.

Customers were charged between 5,000 and 45,000 baht, depending on how advanced their pregnancy was.

Police said Ms Suwanna will be charged with running an unauthorised clinic, operating a medical institute without proper registration or a licence, and selling medication without a permit.

This is not the first time Ms Suwanna has been arrested. According to police, she faced a similar offence 10 years ago. The case went to court and she was acquitted.