At a conference on abortion and reproductive justice in Makhanda in 2018, the department of social development said between 52% and 58% of the estimated 260 000 abortions that take place in South Africa every year are illegal.
Dr Melusi Dhlamini from Marie Stopes says when the process is done early, it can be compared to a heavy period.The pills soften the cervix, cause uterine contractions that will differ from woman to woman and push out the pregnancy tissue. “I helped a student during lockdown who said being able to do it at home was a saving grace. She didn’t have a reason to leave her home because of the lockdown, so she couldn’t go to a facility to abort. She got a package at home when her parents were away and she did it alone at home without having to explain anything to anyone.”
“Marie Stopes is not affordable for the majority of women. The public sector needs to be held accountable and should not be outsourcing the provision of care to NGOs. They also need to be taking responsibility for the provision of reproductive health commodities, including generic medical abortion drugs. We should not be relying on the private sector to fill in gaps for the public sector,” she says.
He says some organisations have been in discussions with the national department of health to allow self-managed abortions up to 12 weeks, but the talks have been moving at a snail’s pace. “Access to self-managed abortion in these times will give women the choice to decide. Removing unnecessary barriers is a must in times of Covid-19 and beyond.”“We will be sitting at hotlines and linking with regional partners and see how this can be done. This is now about women organising themselves, planning and developing. It’s now about what women want to do, and there is so much potential with self-managed abortions.