August 3, 2004
Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health Choice of Termination of Pregnancy Amendment Bill 2003

South African Provincial Parliament Information
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Doctors for Life, represented by Dr Takalani Dube and John Smyth, QC, today made oral submissions to the Committee in Parliament at Cape Town. DFL asked the Members of Parliament to put the Amendment Bill on hold for the following reasons: 1. Because almost all abortions are now done by means of Misoprostil tablets, rather than any surgical procedure, the existing law has fallen into disrepute. No regard whatever is paid to the mandatory requirement of ensuring the mother has given ‘informed consent.’ Very often the midwife does not consult with a medical practitioner when the gestation period is over 12 weeks as required by the Act. 2. The Committee was presented with powerful evidence from women who have undergone abortions and subsequently bitterly regretted it because they were given no information about the unborn child in their wombs, what was involved in the procedure or what the psychological after-effects would be. DFL will very shortly institute a High Court action against a clinic which aborted an unborn child from a schoolgirl without giving her any information whatever as to what was involved and behind her parents’ backs. 3. The provisions in the new Bill to designate facilities ‘automatically’ will be a recipe for disaster that is bound to increase pressure on all hospital staff, particularly those who have conscientious objections to abortion. Doctors and nurses from rural clinics will initiate abortions on the assumption that facilities do qualify when often they will not because adequate staff who are willing to do abortions will not be available and therefore the facility will not be ‘accessible’ under the new Act. The pressure on all staff will become intolerable. DFL presented to the Committee the Minutes of a Theatre Staff meeting at a Gauteng hospital where the staff (both pro-life and pro-choice) were at loggerheads. Copies may be obtained from DFL. 4. In the UK and USA the current trend is very much to impose greater restrictions on abortion because of new and compelling medical evidence as to the viability of the unborn child from a much earlier age than previously thought. DFL submitted to the members of Parliament that this was certainly not the time to liberalise the South African law even more. 5. The press coverage estimating that 500 deaths occur each year due to the misuse of Misoprostil (Pretoria News 5 March 2004), coupled with the admissions by the Free State department of Health that deaths occurred as a result of the misuse of the tablets, add weight to a powerful case for delaying the new Bill and considering introducing clauses that will stop these abuses of the current law. Copies of the Free State admissions can be obtained from DFL. For enquiries phone John Smyth, QC at 083 653 8804. Copies of the 8 page submission including appendices presented to the Parliamentary Committee are available from Shadrack or Martus at the DFL office – Tel: (031) 760 0443. Doctors for Life International represent more than 1000 medical doctors and specialists across South Africa and the globe. For more information contact mail@dfl.org.za