Clandestine clinics offering illegal abortions are one of the prime causes of unnecessary maternal deaths across Africa. The lack of facilities for safe procedures makes the statistics worse.
WHEN THE PAIN started, I called him. I begged him for help. I was bleeding so much. The pain became more and more severe. I could not sit, or stand or lie down. I could not move. He told me not to contact him again, that it was not his problem. He told me to go to hospital if I have problems. After that, I never got hold of him again.”
This is the story of Megan Naidoo (not real name), the survivor of an illegal backyard abortion procedure. Naidoo was seven weeks pregnant when her boyfriend forced her to have an abortion. She lived with him and her father in a small two-bedroom flat on the outskirts of Kimberley in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. There are not many institutions providing safe abortions in Kimberley and Naidoo was afraid of shaming her Muslim father.
So, she took a bus to Johannesburg in search of a way out of her desperate situation. She had only about $144 for the trip. Her boyfriend gave it to her when he put her on the bus to Johannesburg and told her to return with a clean body.
As she walked through the city searching for someone to direct her to a designated facility, she came across a flyer, stuck to a lamp post. The flyer was advertising safe and painless abortions. At first, she did not realize what the flyer suggested. Then, she saw more flyers decorating electricity boxes, lamp posts, traffic lights and sidewalk walls; they were everywhere around her. “Safe 30-minute abortions, no pain guaranteed” the flyers beckoned her; “Phone ‘Dr Nick’ to make appointment”.
Although she was afraid of judgment, she managed to make the call. Back home in Kimberley, her family would have, in God’s name, stopped her from killing an innocent baby for selfish reasons. This is also what the nurse said to her when she first approached the local hospital in Kimberley for help.
This story is from the December 2018 - February 2019 edition of Forbes Woman Africa.
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This story is from the December 2018 - February 2019 edition of Forbes Woman Africa.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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