Cape Town - Marie Stopes is campaigning to end the stigma around abortions which prevents women from getting the care they need, two decades after it was legalised in South Africa.
Spokesperson Whitney Chinogwenya said the Blue Ribbon campaign is about empowering women with easily accessible information about safe, legal abortions.
“We want to make abortion services mainstream,” she said. “It’s still a topic that is stigmatised and taboo - nobody talks about it. But abortion is legal in South Africa and has been for 22 years.”
Marie Stopes is South Africa’s largest non-profit provider of abortions along with sexual and reproductive healthcare services. It is part of an international partnership of clinics in 37 countries and first came to South Africa in 1993. It runs 17 centres across seven provinces.
“The importance of the Blue Ribbon campaign mission is reiterated by the following frightening statistics: according to the Gutthmaker Foundation, an estimated 52% of women get their abortion service from the illegal market and Amnesty International stated that only 40% of termination of pregnancy-designated facilities in South Africa, actually provide the service,” Chinogwenya said.
Thanks to the taboos around abortion, women still don’t know when, where and how to safely get one if they need it.
Marie Stopes runs four clinics in the Cape Town area: one each in Bree Street in the city centre, Bellville, Philippi, and Parklands. The organisation hopes to expand to three new locations this year.
Chinogwenya said the Western Cape clinics have fewer patients accessing their services because in this province abortions are provided readily at state hospitals and clinics for free.
“The Western Cape does much better than other regions,” she said. “The (provincial) government provides these services in most of its facilities. You can’t say the same for the rest of the country.”
Marie Stopes services are not free like in state hospitals, but it charges higher rates in more affluent areas, which helps it subsidise costs in poorer areas.
Chinogwenya said there is mental health support along the way.
“We do pre-procedure counselling, and talk you through options. The procedure only happens if the client is 100% sure it’s what they want.”
@WeekendArgus