Polokwane - Illegal abortions were a major contributor to maternal mortality in Limpopo province, provincial Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba said on Tuesday.
Speaking during a campaign to end illegal abortion operators in Polokwane, Ramathuba said young girls were driven to their graves because of bogus doctors.
Ramathuba walked the streets of Polokwane CBD with midwives and doctors, removing posters on the streets which advertised abortion services.
She said some girls were rushed to hospital after complications when serious damage had already been done.
“By the time they come to our facility it is really too late to save them. That is why we want to deal with the root cause of these murders,” said Ramathuba.
Numerous streets in Polokwane have illegal abortion clinics which operate out of backyards and stuffy offices.
Pamphlets can be seen pasted on electricity boxes, lamp poles, garbage bins and walls, all advertising services and with cellphone numbers.
A group of women could be seen handing out pamphlets with illegal abortion operators’ contacts on them. A follow-up on the contact numbers led to an office where police conducted a raid and arrested an Ugandan citizen.
The suspect was found to be in the country illegally after he told police he did not have a passport. He was arrested and dozens of pamphlets advertising his practice were confiscated.
“We want to eradicate all the quack doctors who are in our streets promising our young girls safer abortions, but instead what they are doing is that they are murdering our young girls,” said Ramathuba.
She appealed to young girls to wait for the right time to have sex to avoid illegal abortions.
Ramathuba said government hospitals were equipped with midwives and doctors who conducted safer abortions.
“We are saying to those who come and advertise on our streets that they can provide safer abortions and all sorts of things, and instead they give you a concoction which could take away your life,” said Ramathuba.
She added: “If you are lucky when you come at our facility we end up doing a hysterectomy, meaning you will never have a child again.”
Ramathuba said most patients who were admitted at hospital with complications stemming from a botched abortion, sometimes still had the pamphlets with them advertising the services.
“What we usually discover after a young girl has died in our hospital, are these pamphlets that advertise consultations with a Dr…saying you must consult for this and that.”
Polokwane police confirmed that illegal abortions were a problem in the city, but said they were intensifying their monitoring of the problem.
Polokwane police spokesman Captain Ntobeng Phala said a number of fake doctors had been arrested since January and were going through courts.
African News Agency