Backstreet abortion: women's experiences

Abstract

Aim: This was a descriptive study aimed at exploring the personal experiences of women who induce abortion and the circumstances surrounding induced abortion.

Methods: The study was conducted in six public hospitals in four different provinces: Baragwanath (Gauteng), Groote Schuur and Tygerberg (Western Cape), King Edward and R.K. Khan (Kwa-Zulu/Natal) and Livingstone (Eastern Cape). In-depth interviews were conducted with 25 African, Indian and Coloured women admitted to the hospitals following backstreet abortions. The study gave women the opportunity to "speak for themselves" about "why" and "how" and the context in which the unsafe induced abortions occurred.

Results: The findings show that a host of factors were important in the circumstances leading to unwanted pregnancy and induced abortion: socio-economic, cultural, psychological and societal. Disempowerment in relationships combined with financial pressures constituted the background as to why women felt forced to terminate their pregnancies. The perceived need for termination was found to over-ride all other considerations, including religious ones. The ways in which women attempted to procure abortion, both through legal and illegal routes, are presented. Wider social and legal discourses an abortion were found to be an important factor in how women experienced their situation.

PIP: In order to determine why and how women in South Africa obtain illegal abortions, a descriptive study was conducted in six public hospitals in four provinces. Data were gathered via semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 25 women hospitalized with complications of self-confessed induced abortion (64% Africa, 20% Indian, and 16% Colored). 3 of the 5 married women were separated from their husbands. Almost half of the subjects were adolescents, and the mean age was 25 years. All of the women were aware of contraceptives but failed to use them or used them improperly. In some cases, the male partners disapproved of contraception or initiated intercourse in such a way that disempowered the women, making them unable to negotiate contraceptive usage. Most of the women felt they had no choice but to seek abortion because their sexual relationships or financial circumstances were unstable. The compulsion to seek abortion overrode all legal and religious considerations. The women, who had to self-induce or seek illegal abortion, felt that the current law placed a tremendous burden on them at a time of extreme trauma. The women also complained about their treatment at the hands of the abortionists and, later, by the hospital staff. Thus, the 1975 abortion and Sterilization Act has failed to limit the number of abortions. The law should be amended to make abortion accessible, safe, and less expensive to obtain. In addition, men should be targeted recipients of family planning and contraception information.