In the wake of Tuesday’s gruesome discovery of a large number of foetuses at a Bangkok temple, Public Health Minister Jurin Laksanawisit yesterday ordered a crackdown on illegal abortion operations across the country as well as on doctors performing unauthorised abortions.

Acting on a presumption the foetuses were extracted through abortion, Jurin said his order also relied on self-confessed accounts by an undertaker at Wat Phai Ngern in Bang Khor Laem district that five abortion clinics near the temple had paid him to cremate or dispose of the foetuses.

The crackdown would extend to registered clinics that may have provided unauthorised medical services. The penalties against violators of all kinds range from suspension or permanent revocation of licence to disciplinary or criminal action, Jurin said.

The Nation