MISSION ABORT?

EVEN THOUGH IT’S BEEN LEGAL (IN SOME COUNTRIES) FOR NEARLY 30 YEARS, WE EXPLORE WHY ABORTION IS STILL A STICKY TOPIC

- SAADIQAH SCHROEDER

According to a 2021 study in the Reproductive Health journal, although abortion was legalised in South Africa in 1996, "barriers to safe, legal abortion services remain, and women continue to seek abortions outside of the formal healthcare sector". In the same study, the 15 women interviewed were aware that abortion was legal and available in public clinics, but they were sceptical of the negative and judgemental attitudes from healthcare providers.

These factors lead women to explore other avenues, like backstreet abortions, to carry out their termination of pregnancy (TOP). However, there seem to be far fewer illegal abortions in this country since its legalisation, and a significant decrease in deaths of women who undergo unsafe abortions. But why do women still turn to unsafe methods of termimation when it is available in safe, clinical environments?

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"The State has the responsibility to provide reproductive health to all, and also to provide safe conditions under which the right of choice can be exercised without fear or harm" is what the original 1996 Choice of Termination of Pregnancy (CTOP) document states.

However, as progressive as South Africa has been in the last 20 years, the people that live in this country are still conservative. This results in a dismissal of topics surrounding reproductive health, gender and sexuality. Dr Chivaugn Gordon, a medical officer at Groote Schuur and a senior lecturer at UCT, explains that South Africa's societal beliefs result in a lot of shame directed at the women who receive abortions, shunning them for having conceived in the first place.