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===Laws & Social Stigmas=== | ===Laws & Social Stigmas=== | ||
In South Africa, abortion is legal. | In South Africa, abortion is fully legal in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. For the first twelve weeks, all primary reasons for an abortion are permitted, including to save the life of the woman, to preserve physical health, to preserve mental health, rape or incest, fetal impairment, economic or social reasons or available on request. From the thirteenth to twentieth week of pregnancy, an abortion may be performed under the following circumstances: to save the life of the woman, to preserve physical health, to preserve mental health, rape or incest, fetal impairment and economic or social reasons. After the twentieth week of pregnancy, an abortion may be performed "if two medical practitioners or one medical practitioner and a midwife are of the opinion that the continued pregnancy would endanger the woman’s life, would result in severe malformation of the foetus or would pose a risk of injury to the foetus."<ref>[http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/abortion/profiles.htm UN Report: Abortion Law in South Africa]</ref> | ||
The abortion cannot be performed by any of the consulting physicians. It must be performed at a government hospital (or another approved institution) by a physician. The hospital superintendent must approve the abortion.<ref>[http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/abortion/profiles.htm UN Report: Abortion Law in South Africa]</ref> | For the abortion to be legal, the woman must first get approval from two independent physicians (not including the physician who will perform the abortion). One of the consulting physicians must have practiced medicine for at least four years. If the abortion is being performed to preserve the woman's mental health, a psychiatrist must be one of the consulting physicians. If the abortion is being performed due to unlawful intercourse, a district surgeon must approve of the abortion. Furthermore, if the abortion is being performed due to rape, incest or intercourse with an intellectually-disabled woman, there will typically need to be a certificate issued by a local magistrate to authorize the abortion on such grounds. | ||
The abortion cannot be performed by any of the consulting physicians. It must be performed at a government hospital (or another approved institution) by a physician. The hospital superintendent must approve the abortion. | |||
Until 1975, abortion law in South Africa was under Roman-Dutch Common Law, which only permitted abortion if the life of the woman was endangered by the pregnancy. Then, in 1975, The Abortion and Sterilization Act of 1975 was passed, which expanded abortion availability to include women who would suffer from mental/physical health issues if the pregnancy would be continued, women who were victims of rape or incest or were intellectually-disabled (or, as the law called it "idiot or imbecile"), or if the fetus was at risk of being born with a mental/physical defect. The Act required that three physicians approve of the abortion. Since the Act was still fairly restrictive, most women at the time did not seek legal abortions and the majority of abortions (200,000 per year) were performed illegally. | |||
As written in a UN Report, "This legal situation was dramatically altered in 1994 after the transition from the apartheid regime to full democracy and the victory of the African National Congress (ANC) in the first fully democratic elections in South Africa. The ANC had campaigned on a platform of liberalized abortion and, once it came to power, it proceeded to fulfill its campaign pledge on this issue. After receiving the report of the Ad Hoc Select Committee on Abortion and Sterilisation, appointed to review this matter, the Government introduced draft legislation in Parliament to allow abortions to be performed on request during the first fourteen weeks of pregnancy. The proposed legislation provoked a heated debate between pro-choice and pro-life groups, and the latter held numerous rallies to protest suggested changes. Despite polls indicating that the great majority of the population did not support the legislation and considerable opposition among legislators both within and without the ruling ANC party, the legislation (the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act) was enacted in 1996, with almost one quarter of the legislators absent."<ref>[http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/abortion/profiles.htm UN Report: Abortion Law in South Africa]</ref> | |||
===What to Get & Where to Get It=== | ===What to Get & Where to Get It=== | ||