Spotlight falls on abortion

ONLY half of the state facilities designed to provide abortions are actually delivering the service.

This is one of the findings presented in Amnesty International’s Barriers to Safe and Legal Abortions in South Africa research briefing released yesterday. The research was done in collaboration with the University of Cape Town’s Women’s Health Research Unit.

Yesterday marked 20 years since the adoption of the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act (CTOPA). The briefing highlights three primary barriers to safe and legal abortions in the country – the failure to regulate conscientious objection‚ inequalities in access to services for poor and marginalised communities and a lack of information on sexual and reproductive rights.

The results of these barriers have been devastating in some cases‚ with a 19-year-old student dying in Johannesburg last year‚ following complications from an unsafe abortion. A special adviser to the Minister of Social Development, Bathabile Dlamini, told the United Nations that system deficiencies‚ stigma and discrimination contributed to her death.

The report found that the government’s failure to regularise conscientious objection‚ which is a health care professional’s right to refuse to perform an abortion‚ contributed to the shortage of facilities offering the service.

Of the 505 state facilities designed to provide abortions‚ only 264 are performing first and second trimester abortions.

Amnesty International researcher Louise Carmody said there is poor understanding of conscientious objection and its limits among health practitioners. “It does not apply to those administering medicine or in emergencies [for example].”

Legislation dictates that anyone who prevents a legal abortion in South Africa is committing an offence‚ but there are few accountability mechanisms in this regard‚ she said.

Among Amnesty International’s recommendations are the regulation of conscientious objection with clear protocols‚ training of healthworkers around conscientious objection‚ the improved provision of information of where to access abortion on Department of Health mobile apps.

It also calls on the government to record maternal deaths specifically relating to abortion in order to better identify system gaps. — Roxanne Henderson