highest court
The Bill allowing abortion was tabled in Parliament this week. But Catholic bishops have instructed their lawyers to oppose it in the Constitutional Court. Gaye Davis reports
SOUTH Africa’s Catholic bishops intend challenging the liberalisation of the country’s abortion laws in the Consitutional Court.
The Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) has instructed Durban advocate Noel Pistorius to prepare its case and will launch its challenge should the Termination of Pregnancy Bill be passed into law.
Lobbying by the Catholic Church is understood to have included President Nelson Mandela himself, who was visited informally recently by Archbishop Wilfrid Napier of Durban, Archbishop Lawrence Henry of Cape Town and Bishop Louis Ndlovu of Swaziland — the president and two vice-presidents of the SACBC.
And on Monday, the day before the Bill was tabled in Parliament, a six-member SACBC delegation led by Napier met African National Congress national executive committee members, including Deputy President Thabo Mbeki.
Other ANC members present were Health Minister Nkosazana Zuma, ANC Deputy Secretary General Cheryl Carolus, Deputy Finance Minister Gill Marcus and Mpuma-langa Premier Matthew Phosa.
The SACBC delegation asked the ANC to allow its members in Parliament to vote according to their consciences on the Bill, in a free vote. ANC policy, however — spelt out in its election manifesto — unequivocally backs women’s right to safe, legal abortions, and the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) recently took the position that its members must vote in line with policy.
For Christian and Muslim ANC MPs and others who oppose abortion on moral grounds, this presents a dilemma. When it comes to the vote, there could be many empty seats as MPs find themselves having to attend to urgent constituency business.
The ANC’s parliamentary caucus has yet to discuss the issue. “If the NEC has taken a position, the caucus must follow the line,” said Mbeki’s parliamentary counsellor, Mavivi Manzini. “If there are problems, the matter must be referred back to the NEC.”
“We know there are ANC MPs with differing views,” said the SACBC’s associate secretary general, Father Emil Blaser. “It is such an important issue of conscience — we feel there should not be a whipped vote.”
He was unhappy that ANC officials at the meeting had not informed the SACBC delegation that the Bill was to be tabled the next day. “They would surely have known, yet they did not say a word.”
If the Bill was passed, the SACBC would go to the Consitutional Court and argue against it in terms of the Constitution’s guarantee of the right to life, Blaser said. “As far as the church is concerned, life begins at conception and ends with natural death.”
He said the church, which ranked as the largest Christian denomination in South Africa, with between 3,5-million and four million members, might consider a joint Constitutional Court challenge with the National Party.
The NP this week said it would oppose provisions in the Bill that allow for abortion on demand in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Sheila Camerer, NP representative on women’s issues, said the party would take the issue to the Constitutional Court “if necessary”.
Blaser said “even the status quo” was preferable to what the new Bill was proposing. At present, abortions are allowed under certain conditions. But red tape and lack of access to doctors means the current law is discriminatory against the majority of women. Many end up resorting to unsafe backstreet abortions. Many die, while treating women who have had illegal procedures costs the state millions.
These are among the reasons why the Bill has been welcomed by abortion-reform campaigners. It provides for abortions within a health-care framework that will see the service provided across the country, at primary and secondary health-care facilities, not just state hospitals, as is the case at present.
The Bill will be gazetted for public comment and the National Assembly’s Health Portfolio Committee must hold hearings before it goes to Parliament for approval.
Efforts were this week under way to arrange for the Bill to be dealt with during the last session of Parliament this year. However, a brace of criminal justice Bills has been marked top priority by the Cabinet and Parliament must deal with them first in what will be a very short session.