Thai teen pregnancy leads to clash between families at hospital
An unplanned pregnancy of a 15 year old Thai girl led to a clash between her mother and her boyfriend’s older sister at a hospital in the northern province of Nakhon Sawan on December 20.
A viral video showed two women, 42 year old Phatcharee and 28 year old On-anong, fighting in a hospital, later reported to be Nakhon Sawan Hospital. In the video, the two women were seen pulling each other’s hair and beating each other until a medical officer intervened.
Phatcharee, the woman in a red shirt, later told Channel 7 that she visited the hospital to see her 15 year old daughter, who had just given birth. On-anong was the sister of her 18 year old prospective son-in-law.
Phatcharee stated that she demanded On-anong’s family help with a simple wedding after her brother made her daughter pregnant. If not, she would file a complaint against him for sexually assaulting a minor. However, the man’s family kept postponing the wedding and claimed they were struggling financially.
Despite postponing the wedding, On-anong also attempted to claim sole care of the baby, making Phatcharee even angrier and causing the altercation that day.
On-anong revealed her side of the story to the media, saying her family could not host the wedding due to financial issues. They could not afford a dowry of 100,000 baht in cash and approximately 86,000 baht in gold that Phatcharee requested.
Legal fight
On-anong admitted that she wanted the baby to stay at her home, believing it would be better for the baby, but her family did not want sole care, contrary to what Phatcharee said.
According to On-anong, Phatcharee, her daughter, and two other family members previously asked to stay at her home, and her family agreed. However, On-anong had to ask Phatcharee’s family to leave because they did no housework and only wasted money on trivial things.
This relocation caused On-anong and Phatcharee to argue ever since. On-anong added that Phatcharee also openly cursed her ill son, wishing him dead, which angered her.
On-anong stated that her brother was worried about the legal punishment for the complaint filed by Phatcharee. He left the house, and On-anong did not know his whereabouts. She added that she regretted engaging in the altercation in the hospital.
MGR Online reported that Phatcharee filed two complaints: one at Meuang Nakhon Sawan Police Station, and another against her daughter’s boyfriend for sexual assault.
The penalty for sexually assaulting a minor under the age of 18 is imprisonment from two to ten years and a fine of between 4,000 and 20,000 baht, according to Section 318 of the Criminal Law.
