Weekly Mail Reporter
THE abortion debate looks set to start all over again with the appointment this month of a parliamentary committee that is likely to have the pro-choice and anti-abortion lobbies fighting it out.
The 26-member committee, which will hear submissions from the public before recommending legislation to the cabinet, represents a wide spectrum of opinion from all the political parties, from Catholic priest Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa and leader of the African Christian Democratic Party the Rev Kenneth Meshoe to gender activists Brigitte Mabandla and Jennifer Ferguson. There are 15 women and five medical doctors on the committee.
Abortion is presently allowed only in rape and incest cases, and in some medical cases. The ANC’s health policy document, released before the elections, recommended liberalising abortion and promoting freedom of choice. ANC committee members are not bound to follow the policy and some may well argue their own positions.
Some women’s groups regard the appointment of the committee as a setback for the pro-choice lobby. Women’s Party leader Nina Romm this week said the ANC had reneged on an election promise to legalise abortion.
“The ANC did not promise to do research to decide whether legalised abortion was what the community desired,” she said. “Neither did it respond, in the manner of the Democratic Party, by acknowledging diverse opinions within party ranks and making the question of abortion a question for individual choice.”
Dr Marj Dyer of the Abortion Rights Action Group suspects the committee has been formed because of pressure from Christian and Muslim groups.
“We fought the Nat government for 20 years and just when we thought positive changes would come our way, we were excluded (from the committee),” Dyer said. “The fact that you are a politician does not make you an authority on abortion issues.”
Others argue that the appointment of the committee is not a reversal, but another step in the process of forming abortion policy.
“It is one thing for the ANC to have a policy on abortion as a political party,” said a human rights lawyer. “But now it is in a government of national unity and has to include other parties in policy-making.”
There is no doubt, however, that legalising abortion is a long way off, even if the committee finally recommends it. “If people are going to be asked their view, we know that not everyone will agree to the legalising of abortion,” said Fakazi Nkosi, of the ANC’s Department of Information and Publicity. “We might just go round in circles, trying to please everyone.”
In the meantime, women will go on dying from backstreet abortions, said Lisa Vetten of People Opposing Women Abuse.
But Health Minister Dr Nkosazana Zuma said that if you wanted to give people the opportunity to present their case and give evidence, it always took longer to make a decision. This was more acceptable than “rushing it through parliament.”