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Johannesburg: Difference between revisions
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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> | 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> | ||
The report later states: "The 1996 abortion law is now the most liberal in Africa and, indeed, the world, authorizing the performance of abortions not only during the first trimester of pregnancy on request, but also through the twentieth week of pregnancy on very broad grounds, including socio-economic grounds. Although the preamble to the law stresses that abortion is not considered a form of contraception or population control, it also makes clear that the law is firmly based on a notion of individual human rights."<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=== | ||