Abortion nurses hounded for being ‘bad’ struggle to cope
● “You will not go to heaven,” midwife Daphney Tlhabela was told by a fellow nurse because she performs abortions.
As the programme manager for women’s health in Gauteng, one of Tlhabela’s functions is regulating termination of pregnancy at public clinics.
Tlhabela was so affected by this comment that she decided to base the research for her master’s thesis on the mental health of nurses who work in abortion practice.
“I felt perturbed because we are trying to save lives, preventing unsafe abortions in which women end up dying. I wanted to know what were others going through,” Tlhabela said.
Nurses who work in abortion clinics have been kicked out of their churches, face discrimination and name-calling from their own colleagues, and often don’t receive counselling.
As a result, they suffer depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, said Tlhabela.
Because so few nurses will take on the job, those who do often burn out. Tlhabela found one Johannesburg clinic where a nurse worked entirely alone, serving up to 40 women a day.
The study was conducted among the 57 Gauteng nurses who work in termination of pregnancy cases. It reveals that nurses are ill-treated, assaulted, “even being called murderers by their own colleagues and community members”.
On International Nurses Day this weekend, these nurses will not be celebrated in the way their colleagues are, despite their dedication to reproductive justice and the fact that abortion was legalised in South Africa two decades ago.
Tlhabela said the ideal should be two or three nurses per facility doing abortions on rotation.
Public health facilities are allowed to do the procedure up to 12 weeks into pregnancy without a doctor’s assistance, but they are often unequipped or unwilling.
Apart from budget constraints, conscientious objection allows health workers to choose not to do work that goes against their religious beliefs, ethics or morals.
A midwife who spoke anonymously said abortion nurses were “chased out of churches” and abandoned by their families.
“My own mother doesn’t want to know. We never ever speak about abortion because it is completely against her religion. We have to listen to all the stories and trauma but don’t always have someone with whom to talk to about it.
“I try to go for counselling once a month, because some cases are far worse than others, such as foetal abnormalities, wanted babies that don’t survive, and cases where limbs are left behind in the uterus and we have to redo the process.”
Sister Judy Ranape, from Tokai in Cape Town, has been doing terminations since 2008. “Yes, we are being ostracised and there are nurses who don’t want to do this work. But the few who want to help women have to be strong,” said Ranape.
She said there was a lack of counselling for healthcare workers.
Sister Marti Dewrance has worked at a private reproductive health clinic in Midrand for 20 years. She has a no-nonsense stance to deal with people who ask about her religious convictions.
“I am a Christian, and I say it proudly. “Abortion is not a choice anybody wants to make. If you have to, we want to do it legally, hygienically and with the woman’s health in mind. I sleep well every night, knowing that I helped someone who had not planned or wanted a pregnancy, such as domestic workers who can’t afford to be parents. It is not ‘bad girls’ who come to us. These are ordinary women,” said Dewrance.