South Africa: SMS platform set to ensure safe abortions

SMS platform set to ensure safe abortions
Crime & Courts | 4 March 2017
Rabbie Serumula

Johannesburg - They advertise their illicit abortion services, and cellphone numbers, on posters stuck across the city.

But illegal abortions are unreliable and unsafe, and that’s why Phephisile Mathizerd has helped start a new initiative to link women to safe abortions in Gauteng - at their fingertips.

The new initiative, called FEM, is designed to give girls and women access to safe and legal abortions through an SMS platform.

Continued at source: IOL.co: http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/sms-platform-set-to-ensure-safe-abortions-8036676


South Africa: A guide to safe abortion services now at your fingertip

A guide to safe abortion services now at your fingertips
Roxanne Henderson | 2017-03-02

When Phephisile Mathizerd was 21 and her friend had an unwanted pregnancy she had no idea how to help her.

“She didn't know where to go. I didn't know where to go. I didn't think of asking my mom or her mom where to go. I went to Google and found Marie Stopes‚ but I could have easily stumbled on an illegal facility‚” she said.

Now‚ years later‚ Mathizerd is spearheading an initiative to help women locate safe facilities for abortions in the form of an SMS portal called Fem.

The service provides users with a referral to a safe abortion clinic‚ vetted by social enterprise safe2choose‚ at their fingertips.

Continued at link: http://www.timeslive.co.za/lifestyle/2017/03/02/A-guide-to-safe-abortion-services-now-at-your-fingertips1?platform=hootsuite