29 Aug 2013

Even though the country does not permit abortion except under special circumstances, the country still continues to register high numbers of abortions across hospitals.

Addressing a kgotla meeting at Khudumelapye in Letlhakeng Sub-district on August 27, Minister of Health, Dr John Seakgosing said from 2008 to 2012, a total of 35 676 cases of abortion were registered in both hospital and police registers. Dr Seakgosing said the figures were worrying, especially looking at the fact that there might be many more unreported abortion cases that took place in the backyard.

“In most cases, we get to be aware of cases of abortion only when there is a problem. If the attempt has gone wrong that is when people report to hospitals and the police get to know about it. However, the fact that other abortions may be botched successfully behind doors means the number may even be more than double the figures we have,’’ he said.

He added that they had also realised that abortions took place during certain days of the week. “An observation has been made that most abortions take place on Friday. This is to allow the woman to recuperate over the weekend and report for work as normal on Monday. Among students, the trend is that abortions are done during schools vacations,” he said.

Furthermore, the minister said even more concerning was that abortions were conducted in a dangerous manner where people would use pens or even feathers to pierce the foetus, sometimes even at advanced stages of pregnancy.

The minister told the meeting that reasons for women botching pregnancies varied from teenage pregnancy to men denying that they were the fathers, something he argued left women helpless that they decided to terminate the pregnancy because they would not be able to raise the child.

Dr Seakgosing said such issues were a challenge to his ministry, thus warned of the consequences of abortion such as death due to high loss of blood and septicaemia, an invasion of the bloodstream by virulent microorganisms from the point of infection as well as infertility. On other issues, Dr Seakgosing advised women that the care of a child started as soon as conceiving had taken place.

He said it was best that pregnant women sought medical advice as often as possible and that programmes such as Prevention Prevent Mother To Child HIV Transmission (PMTCT) should be started well in time to save the child from infection. He also said pregnant women needed to be checked for hypertension and diabetes so that they could be advised well in time on how to take care of themselves.

Dr Seakgosing also advised them to desist from alcohol consumption while pregnant.Ends