Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy...Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, School of Population Health, Key Centre for Women�s Health in Society The University of Melbourne...This thesis, describes how women who are forced to migrate from Burma into Thailand manage their fertility, unwanted pregnancy and pregnancy loss. Unsafe abortion is a common problem and much time and resources are taken with the care of women suffering haemorrhage, infection and pain after self-induced abortion in both Thai and Burmese-led health facilities. The thesis examines the characteristics of 43 Burmese women admitted to health facilities with post-abortion complications and their chosen methods of self-induced abortion. There is no commonly agreed definition of abortion between formal, informal health workers or women. Most people considered it morally proscribed and in some cases knew it was illegal, but still felt it was necessary. Some aspects of post-abortion care are performed better by informally than formally trained health workers. Post-abortion family planning was poorly performed by Thai health workers. Lay midwives play a central role in fertility management and some are abortionists. Burmese women�s partners are not well informed about fertility management and frequently decline vasectomy. Within a relm of limited traditional and modern reproductive choices, women manage their fertility outcomes. The Burmese women in this study are generally married with children. Considered illegal migrants, they are employed and work in Thailand without work permits. Many women have a history of escaping human rights abuses and entrenched poverty in Burma. At least a third of women admitted into care with post-abortion complications have induced their abortion with oral herbal preparations, pummelling manipulations or stick abortions. Most of the abortion services are provided by Burmese lay midwives. Reasons for terminating the pregnancy include: poverty, gender-based violence and the local illness of �weakness�. In addition, incomplete sexual health knowledge, and difficult access to reproductive health services play a part in mistimed pregnancy. I argue that a lack of rights increases women�s risk of unsafe abortion. The rights to work and earn a fair wage and to move without fear influence reproductive health choices and access to health services. A lack of sexual health information for men and women and the ability to safely control fertility causes unwanted pregnancies. Furthermore, violence perpetrated at the individual and state level contributes to unsafe abortion. Burmese women�s mortality and morbidity associated with unsafe abortion in Thailand is largely unrecorded and unknown to the Burmese military government. Unwanted and mistimed pregnancy can be avoided through reproductive technologies, education programmes, and access to modern contraceptives. To safely terminate unwanted pregnancies and to treat the complications of pregnancy loss is a woman�s right. Burma and Thailand are signatories to Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Descrimination Against Women, yet Burmese women continue to suffer, become sterile, socially vilified, unemployed or repatriated to Burma due to their reproductive status. Their sickness and deaths are secondary to the economic imperatives of Burma and Thailand.