South Africa: How poor service in the public sector is pushing women to ‘backstreet’ abortion

Posted by Ndivhuwo Mukwevho
Oct 18, 2023

In April 2022, *Grace Langa went to Frontier Hospital in Queenstown in the Eastern Cape for an abortion. “At first I went to the hospital on a Monday. I was told that they only perform abortions on Wednesdays.

“I went there again on Wednesday but they said that I had to come back the following week as they only take 20 abortion patients a day,” she recalls. Finally, Langa went back to the hospital the following week and got an ultrasound to see how far along her pregnancy was.

Continued: https://health-e.org.za/2023/10/18/ec-case-study-how-poor-service-in-the-public-sector-is-pushing-women-to-backstreet-abortion/

South Africa – Abortion service providers face judgment from colleagues

Abortion service providers face judgment from colleagues

Health E-News
Aug 15, 2019

Lack of support for termination of pregnancy (TOP) service providers in the public health sector has led to an exodus of qualified people who can perform abortion services. Stigma and judgement from their colleagues make their working conditions so difficult that many opt to leave the service rather than continue to work in hostile environments.

According to Kgaladi Mphahlele, the Doctors Without Borders’ Choice of Termination of Pregnancy Manager in Rustenburg, North West, part of their work has been to train nurses and doctors who perform abortions, especially for women wanting them late in their pregnancy.

Continued: https://health-e.org.za/2019/08/15/abortion-service-providers-face-judgment-from-colleagues/

15.08.2019

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Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act

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Thembi Zulu

training abortion providers

South Africa: When is an abortion legal?

When is an abortion legal?
21 Feb 2017
Ina Skosana

Find out when you can terminate a pregnancy and who should be doing it.

Abortion has been legal in South Africa for more than 20 years but many women are still having unsafe abortions, performed by unqualified people. Recent research by the global human rights organisation Amnesty International found that many women don't know abortion is legal in South Africa, nor the level of care they are entitled to.

Less than 7% of the country's 3 880 health facilities provide abortions, according to the Amnesty International briefing document released in February.

In South Africa, abortion is legal up to 20 weeks of pregnancy but who performs the procedure can differ depending on how far along the pregnancy is, according to the Choice of Termination of Pregnancy Act

Continued at source: Bhekisisa: http://bhekisisa.org/article/2017-02-21-00-when-is-it-safest-to-have-an-abortion

21.02.2017