Illegal Abortion 101: The Why Behind Illegal Abortions.
- intel3063
- Nov 20, 2023
- 6 min read
By Prince Mokwena and Tshegofatso Ramaphoko
According to the South African Constitution the South African government passed a legal rule that legalized abortion in November 1996. The legislation which is Choice of Termination of Pregnancy Act (amended 2008).
Termination of pregnancy is when a woman makes a choice to end her pregnancy journey by medical means prior to the full pregnancy term. The women can get through the termination without giving reason however, for the termination to be processed by a medical practitioner the pregnancy must be less than a period of 13 weeks.
Should the woman be 13 to 20 weeks then the law says the patient aught to have a specific reason given as to why they are choosing to end or terminate their pregnancy. In terms of medical means, a pregnancy of more than 20 weeks can be terminated also given reasons that the fetus’ life may be in danger.
Illegal or Unsafe abortion on the other hand is when a woman ends their pregnancy journey at an unsafe facility, unskilled, and unqualified person, a not clinically considered place without proper medical facilities.
This has led to an increasing number of young women especially in South Africa to die due to the illegal termination that costed them lack of proper medical equipment and treatment.
Going the legal way.
The Choice of Termination of Pregnancy Act No.92 of 1996 gives each and every woman despite the age a right to a free abortion at a government hospital or a government clinic during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
The Abortion and Sterilization Act No2 (ASA) of 1975 allows abortion to save the life of the mother in cases of sever fetal deformity in cases of rape, or incest or if the women is mentally unstable.
Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng told Newzroom Africa during an interview that the idea of Choice of Termination transpired following the consideration of the marginalized voices of women and girls who did not have proper access to private facility services.
She continued to emphasize that one of the other issues the Act was passed is that some of the migrants or foreign migrants did not have proper proof of South African addresses for them to access clinical services often opting for illegal route.
Reasons Behind the Issue.
A study that was done by the World Health Organization showed that the issue at hand when it comes to women taking the illegal route is mainly because of certain stigma especially in black cultural communities. Women also face abuse in a verbal manner which also makes them shy away from visiting proper health care facilities.
Media representation has had a role which it played on shows such as Yizo Yizo where it was portrayed that women who have abortions are being judged and are most likely to be percieved as prostitutes.
A YouTuber Laila Nassali shared a video on YouTube saying some of the reasons why women go through abortion is the blame from the society which constantly blames girls for getting pregnant while at the same time there is lack of sexual education and prevention methods especially from home.
As the Newzroom Africa’s interview proceeded with Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng, she added saying South Africa needs to support this right that women have by curbing the misinformation as well as promote more information on such issues.
“Most women end up taking the illegal way because lack of information and how much the term abortion is so much of a taboo especially in black communities. But let us not forget the misinformation from the illegal clinics, affordability at private clinics, perhaps rude practitioners at governmental facilities and delays which can come from certain mishaps. These are some of the reasons we come across when trying to find why certain women take the other option than the legal way,” says Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng.
However, the issue might also not be the mentioned reasons because at times the illegal route gets to work or be effective and word of mouth becomes the validation of it all incase the illegal process becomes a success.
In a YouTube show called Unpacking with Relebogile Mabotja one of the guests Gaopalelwe Phalaetsile mentioned that she believes the topic of Abortion is upsetting cause of the stigma that makes it more sensitive.
She further mentioned that the term is not treated as a medical issue but more of a moral issue other than a decision. One of the other guests who experienced an illegal abortion at the age of 16 years, Lebogang Mostumi added in agreement saying that the lack of sexual rights information from parents is an issue why she has opted for abortion.
One of the other reasons that Lebogang Motsumi decided to have an illegal abortion was that she was afraid of being judged as this would make her have this negative portrayal of being a murderer.
Speaking to the Victims.
In a YouTube documentary by Eyewitness News on the issue of Illegal abortion an anonymous source told the Eyewitness news that she went to have an abortion at one of the illegal abortion facilities.
She firstly contacted one of the numbers on the abortion pamphlets which are usually pasted on the streetlights, traffic robots and poles. She furthered her experience in explaining the procedure that the person who helped her did not have proper utensils.
“The guy that helped me had no gloves on, no surgical equipment, the place was dark, I was in pain and felt lightheaded because of the bleeding. What shocked me was that the guy used kitchen utensils and vacuumed the fetus out of my vagina with a vacuum cleaner and flushed the fetus,” says the Eyewitness News anonymous source.
The anonymous source further mentioned that years later as she was trying to get pregnant only resulting in several miscarriages. After having a proper check up a fork was found in her womb leaving her with womb cancer and not being able to conceive even to date.
Is There a Way to Prevent the Illegal Route?
We contacted a South African best leading feminine and safe abortion clinic Marie Stopes South Africa which gives out affordable abortion services as well as other feminine clinical matters.
Marie Stopes South Africa mentioned that it provides two options to do the termination process.
First option being that a pregnancy of 8weeks is done medically using pharmaceutical drugs where a patient will only take pills and get cleansed afterwards.
Second option being that a pregnancy of up to 12weeks might require a combination of medical as well as surgical process while above 12weeks is strictly surgical whilst minding the issue of understanding the danger of the termination.
We also managed to contact one of the illegal abortion services and we found out more about the process of illegal termination through the source Joe Jasper. However, Joe was not willing to disclose his location but did mention that that it costs R600 for him to deliver the abortion pills.
Joe asked us how many months we were, and we replied we are not sure because we have not yet checked with the clinic to know how far we are with the pregnancy. Joe, however, did not mind and mentioned that he has pills that can process the pregnancy termination from days till six months term.
He mentioned that the bundle pill he will give to process the termination is the mifepristone and misoprostol which will do the work for faster.
“I will give my best bundle pills which will work even if you are past six months. Do not stress they work fast, and it will take out everything and I will deliver to your location,” says Joe Jasper.
We furthered the investigation and found out that the mifepristone abortion pills as it was stated in an article published by Aljazeera are the most used abortion pills.
Aljazeera also mentioned that the mifepristone if usually taken as the first in the two-part procedure. The second pill that Joe said he will give out was misoprostol which he outlined that it would clean out the dirt meaning the fetus out.
He mentioned that the process should take approximately two days. First day being the that the first pill will terminate the fetus and the second day will have three hours of bleeding without pain and things get back to normal.
“The first pill will do the big job the second one will clean out so you will bleed but for maybe three hours after that you shall be fine. First pill you take it today second pill tomorrow.,” says Joe Jasper.
Joe Jasper mentioned that the pills he was going to deliver which are the mifepristone and misoprostol can be able to terminate a pregnancy even after six months term. However, according to Aljazeera the pills can only be used to stop or terminate a pregnancy of up to ten weeks.
Aljazeera also outlined that the pills are indeed safe to utilize at home but, there are side effects that can lead to one having to visit an emergency care facility because of the abdominal pains and excessive bleeding.
The Health Matters podcast had an interview with a professional gynecologist Dr Nompumelelo Zenda who mentioned that she has dealt with many patients who might have undergone the process of illegal termination.
She mentioned that most common symptoms of aftereffects were uncontrolled bleeding leading to death, infection leading to sepsis, long term admission to get IV antibiotics perhaps, admission to an Intensive Care Unit treatment, infertility causing asherman syndrome.
All these consequences can cost one to either pay more financially or in terms of health and life matters whereas it was better to rather get help at a proper health care facility than the illegal one.
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