[Apologetics] Abortion ends 50% of SA pregnancies

[Stephen Korsman]

Abortion ends 50% of SA pregnancies

Fifty percent of all pregnancies in South Africa end up in abortion and more than 500 000 women have had the procedure done since the introduction of the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy (TOP) Act in 1997.

These statistics were recently released at a symposium organised by Ipas, an international NGO trying to prevent unsafe abortions around the world. Ipas has voiced concern over increases in the number of women opting for abortion, saying it showed that South Africa's health authorities were failing young women for not according contraception practices sufficient resources.

Professor Eddie Mhlanga, the head of obstetrics and gynaecology at Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine at the University of KwaZulu Natal, and an Ipas board member, warned at that while there was much to celebrate, the increases were worrying.

Statistics show that 529 410 women have had safe, legal abortions since 1997. The number of public health facilities providing TOP services has increased by 10% in the past two years. A total of 55% of facilities authorised to provide abortions perform them, against a 45% target set by the Department of Health.

Ipas has also highlighted that 24 percent of all abortions performed in the country are done in the second trimester, putting the health of women at risk.

- Medigram, The South African Medical Association, Volume: 15   Number: 6, April 13, 2007
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://gathman.org/pipermail/apologetics/attachments/20070413/9f031f09/attachment.html>