Thursday, 28 March, 2024
HomePublic HealthSA's liberal abortion laws thwarted by social stigma

SA's liberal abortion laws thwarted by social stigma

AbortionThe SA health service offers free, legal abortions. So why, asks Voice of America, are more than half of abortions in the country illegal, backstreet ones, causing as many as 25% of maternal deaths from septic miscarriages?

Twenty-six-year-old Precious, a VOA report says she has asked to be called to protect her identity, is 16 weeks pregnant. And so is her best friend, also by Precious’ boyfriend. That event turned her life upside down and brought her to the difficult decision to seek an abortion.

The report says she lives in South Africa, where abortion is legal without justification and available through a nurse through 12 weeks of pregnancy, and legal up to 20 weeks, when done by a doctor and with justification. But when she tried to get an abortion in her home city of Johannesburg, she ran into problems. “When I went to register my name, I simply said, ‘I want to do abortion,’ and then they said, ‘No,’” she is quoted in the report as saying.

“And there were two nurses there, and the older one said, ‘Oh, thank God, I’m not trained for this,’ whilst the other one said, ‘no, you have to do back to your place and do it there.’ Then we had a disagreement there, as, like, I’m being against God and more stuff like that.”

The report says hers is a common experience, and it’s what reproductive health advocates say drives 10,000 South African women to seek illegal, backstreet abortions every year.  The South African Health Department estimated that as many as 25% of maternal deaths from septic miscarriages were the result of such illegal abortions. More than half of all abortions in South Africa are unlicensed, despite the fact that half of all government hospitals offer the service for free.

Precious, who says she fears being judged by her neighbours, chose instead to travel to the dusty mining town of Rustenburg, where aid agency Doctors Without Borders has set up a free abortion clinic. She said she was sure of her decision. “I want this thing to be done as quickly as – because I can’t, I can’t take it anymore,” she said, her voice soft and wavering. “Because what I’m thinking is what happened. I can’t think of, like, of positive things. I think, if this thing failed, then what will I do? Should I end my life?”

The report quotes Whitney Chinogwenya, head of marketing at South Africa’s best-known private abortion provider, Marie Stopes International, was saying that their clinics address a real need. The company recently launched a campaign to try to reduce the stigma around abortion care. “When a woman wants to terminate a pregnancy, they’re going to terminate the pregnancy,” Chinogwenya said. “It doesn’t matter what methods they use, it doesn’t matter whether it’s legal, it’s illegal or it’s safe – they’re going to find a way to terminate the pregnancy. So what’s so great about South Africa and it being legal here is that there’s a safe place where you can get the procedure, where it’s not going to harm your body, where it’s not going to cause serious complications. And the most important thing is that we give women a choice.”

Another problem, she said in the report, is that few women know that abortion is legal, and think backstreet providers – who advertise openly, but who are not licensed – are their only option. The report says medical experts harrowing tales of the practices performed by such providers. Many don’t perform ultrasounds, don’t attempt to determine how far along the pregnancy is, don’t follow up after the procedure, give the wrong medication, give incorrect medical advice, or administer dangerous chemicals such as bleach and drain cleaner to desperate patients.

Nurse Kgaladi Mphahlele, who heads the Doctors Without Borders project in Rustenburg, says demand for the clinic's services is high. The report says he estimates he performs as many as 100 first-trimester abortions each month, and says he sees women from as far away as Botswana, where abortion is illegal. His patients, he said, range in age from teenagers to 50-year-olds. He began his career delivering babies, but switched course, and says he’s proud of his decision.

At the clinic in Rustenburg, nurse Christa Tsomele has been performing abortions for a decade, and says she is proud of her work. She says she thinks some of her colleagues are contributing to the stigma of abortion – and worse.

“If you can’t help a patient as a nurse, just refer the client to the relevant place so that the patient must get help,” she is quoted in the report as saying. “Don’t just tell her, ‘no, I can’t do that, or ‘I can’t help you,’ and leave the patient stranded. That is why they end up going to the bogus (provider). Because when you leave her stranded, now she decides to go out to the street, that is where she is going to die.”

It’s that, she says, that keeps her going, through the judgment, through the tears, through the difficult stories she hears day in and day out. Because, she says, whether people agree with her work or not, she’s saving women’s lives, and following the law.

[link url="https://www.voanews.com/a/south-africa-s-liberal-abortion-laws-hampered-by-widespread-stigma/4841297.html"]Voice of America report[/link]

MedicalBrief — our free weekly e-newsletter

We'd appreciate as much information as possible, however only an email address is required.