Nearly 1,700 dead foetuses found in Thai temple

Police in Thailand on Friday discovered almost 1,700 illegally aborted foetuses at a Buddhist temple in Bangkok. Some had been stored there for more than a year.

Reuters

Wrapped in plastic bags, the bodies were found in a newly opened area of the mortuary just days after authorities found 348 foetuses.

Colonel Sombat Milintajinda, area commander of Bangkok Metropolitan Police, told the AFP news agency that police are expecting to find even more.

A 33-year-old woman has been arrested and confessed to carrying out illegal abortions.

Two temple undertakers admitted stashing foetuses in three storage units, leading to the new inspection.

The foetuses would normally have been placed with the remains of people being cremated, but the furnaces were broken and the number of stored bodies built up while repair work was being carried out.

In Thailand, abortion is only permitted under circumstances in which the delivery would harm the mother or if the pregnancy is the result of rape.

The public health ministry, which ordered a nationwide crackdown on abortion clinics as a result of the finds, estimates that of one million pregnancies in Thailand each year, 80,000 are illegally terminated.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has rejected suggestions that the abortion law be amended.