Although we cannot help but regret the delays in its formulation, the governme nt is to be congratulated on its approach to the abortion issue manifest in th e Termination of Pregnancy Bill which is to be put to Parliament before the en d of this year. The Bill is in line with the philosophical ethos underpinning the new South Africa, which gives primacy to the rights of the individual.
The Bill accepts the rights of women to control their own bodies, allowing the m abortions on demand up to 14 weeks of gestation. It recognises there can be exceptional circumstances in which a woman makes such a decision to abort beyo nd the 14-week period, allowing them an additional 10 weeks subject to approva l by a social worker, doctor, or mid-wife.
It respects the rights of health workers to exercise their individual conscien ce with regard to their involvement in such operations. It also gives recognit ion to the rights of minors as individuals — they will be required to have counselling before being allowed an abortion, but will not have to obtain pare ntal consent.
Despite this sensible approach to abortion, the legislation is likely to be fo ught to the bitter end. One of the hopes of the anti-abortion lobby is that th ey can defeat it by a free vote in Parliament, arguing that — like pregnant women seeking abortions and health workers whose assistance is sought — MP
s also have a right to exercise their individual consciences. We cannot agree.
MPs have been elected under a Constitution which specifically gives recognitio n to the collective nature of parliamentary representation. We do have some di fficulties with the party-list system, in particular with provisions our Const itution makes for the expulsion of MPs who lose the party whip. Nevertheless, in terms of the Constitution, the electorate voted for a political party, not for an ind ividual. The ANC campaigned on a pro-abortion manifesto and those who voted fo r it have every justification in expecting its members to give effect to that policy.
We have sympathy for those MPs who might find it impossible to vote for aborti on on religious grounds. But if their consciences weigh so heavily on them, th ey must pay the price demanded by their convictions and bow out of the parliam entary arena. They may be seen as political martyrs by the anti-abortion lobby . But as Oscar Wilde once said of martyrdom: “A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.”