Social & Moral Issues Abortion

AN OVERVIEW OF ABORTION IN AFRICA NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR LIFE CONFERENCE AMANZIMTOTI, 6TH JUNE 2003 By Jo-Ann Downs MPP African Christian Democratic Party There is good news and there is bad news when we look at the picture of abortion in Africa The good news is that the vast majority of African countries do not offer abortion on demand. In 2002 the only ones that did were South Africa, Cape Verde, Tunisia and Zambia. I include Zambia in this because the table shows that Zambia offers abortion for socio-economic reasons, which would basically make it on demand. Nearly every country offers abortion if the life of the mother is at stake. The bad news is that there is incredible pressure on African countries to change their abortion laws and make them more liberal. In March this year representatives of health services, government health ministers and lawyers all concerned with so called women's rights issues met in Addis Ababa for a three day conference to talk about reproductive rights and choices, including abortion. This was the first regional consultation on what their spin-doctors have called 'unsafe abortion'. This conference concluded (construed) that a lot of women die from unsafe abortions in Africa. These initiatives are part of a huge push at the moment to register unsafe or back-street abortions or illegal abortions as one of the biggest health issues facing women in Africa. Download the full report (MS-Word - 120K) _______________________________________________ Please read our disclaimer   Back to Social Issues