The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.60/No.27           July 22, 1996 
 
 
Struggle To Win Abortion Rights Moves Forward In South Africa  

BY GREG ROSENBERG

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Every year in South Africa, nearly 300,000 women have an abortion. Last year, only 2,180 of these procedures were performed legally.

While not specifically addressing abortion, the bill of rights in South Africa's new constitution lays the groundwork for an amendment in existing legislation that could legalize the right to abortion. Representatives of women's rights organizations say such a bill could be introduced in parliament later this year. The constitution establishes the equality of women before the law. It outlaws discrimination on the basis of "race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language, and birth...."

"Everyone has the right to bodily and psychological integrity, which includes the right...to make decisions concerning reproduction," states an article in the bill of rights. "Everyone has the right to have access to...health care services, including reproductive health care."

In an interview here, Michelle O'Sullivan, a leader of the Reproductive Rights Alliance, a coalition of 22 organizations, explained that supporters of a woman's right to choose are encouraged by the constitution, and the proposals of the Parliamentary Ad Hoc Select Committee on Abortion.

The committee recommended that the apartheid-era Abortion and Sterilization Act of 1975 be repealed. New legislation would provide for abortion on demand up to the fourteenth week of pregnancy, and under specified conditions will also legalize abortion between 14 and 24 weeks. The committee urged that the existing requirement that two doctors be consulted prior to performing an abortion be ended; and that a wide range of health workers should be trained and authorized to perform abortions.

"The bigger problem is whether services will be available," said Chris Diamond of the Abortion Reform Action Group. "I want to know what will happen to a woman who has walked 10 kilometers [1 mile = 1.6 km] to a clinic, and she's 12 weeks pregnant."

Under apartheid law, women could only obtain abortions if the pregnancy involved a serious threat to the woman's life; if the woman was judged to be at risk psychologically; if the baby was likely to be deformed; if the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest; or if the woman was deemed mentally unfit.

In practice, this meant that hundreds of thousands of women each year - nearly all of them Black - were compelled to submit to the hazards of back-alley abortions. In 1994, for example, 44,686 women were admitted to government hospitals to be treated for complications arising from incomplete abortions - the vast majority of them illegal.

Ninety nine percent of these women were Black. More than 400 of the women admitted to hospitals died each year. Many more deaths occur outside hospitals, particularly in rural areas where access to clinics has been severely limited.

These figures mirror recent statistics that give a picture of the brutal realities of life for hundreds of thousands of women throughout sub-Saharan Africa. On average, nearly 1,000 for every 100,000 women in that part of the continent die during pregnancy and childbirth. It is estimated that one-third of these deaths are caused by illegal abortions.

"Safe, legal abortion must be located as part of a reproductive health care package," said O'Sullivan. "However, the package does not end with the provision of health care services, but must extend to the improvement of socio-economic conditions for South African women."

The parliamentary committee roughly reflected the proportional makeup of parties in the South African government. Members of the African National Congress were a majority. While abortion rights are a subject of debate in the ANC, the organization is on record as favoring a woman's right to choose. The National Party, African Christian Democratic Party, and others bitterly oppose granting such a right.

"There will be a constitutional challenge to this legislation when it is passed," O'Sullivan said. "And there will be a debate as to whether it will be integrated into the free public health service. But it is likely that it will be." Primary health care is now free to all South Africans.  
 
 
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