Gauteng hospitals have no data on illegal and botched abortions

1 March 2017

The Gauteng Health Department has released statistics on abortions in state hospitals and clinics in a written reply to my questions in the Legislature, but has no information at all on illegal and botched abortions.

There has been a decline in legal abortions, from 20 796 abortions performed in 2013 to 16 736 in 2016.

More risky abortions performed after 12 weeks pregnancy were as follows:

2013 - 3575

2014 - 4157

2015 - 2738

It is unclear why there has been a decline in abortions in state facilities. It could be due to fewer unwanted pregnancies or to wider use of contraceptives.

But it could also be due to poor abortion services at state hospitals and clinics, or nurses who scold pregnant women who want abortions.

There is anecdotal evidence that this pushes some women to have dangerous private abortions by unqualified people.

The department cannot give any information on illegal or botched abortions, including deaths from such abortions, because it says "this information is not routinely collected therefore not readily available".

I am concerned that statistics in this regard are not being collected as this would indicate areas of improvement that would prevent illegal abortions.

We need to understand why many women still have abortions by illegal private operators that endanger their lives, and take effective steps to prevent this.

Issued by Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC, 1 March 2017