Lizeka Mda
The challenge to South Africa’s abortion legislation being heard next week in the Pretoria High Court pays little attention to the needs and desires of South Africa’s women.
On Monday, three groupings – the Christian Lawyers Association of Southern Africa, Christians for Truth in South Africa and United Christian Action – challenge the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act.
They have brought the action against the minister of health, the MEC for health in Gauteng and the Gauteng premier.
Their argument goes like this: “The life of a human being starts at conception. Abortion terminates the life of a human being.
“In terms of Section 11 of Act 108 of 1996, everyone has the right to life. Section 11 applies to an unborn child. Section 11 applies to an unborn child from the moment of conception.
“The Act is in conflict with Section 11 of the Constitution, in that it allows the termination of human life at any stage after conception and at any stage prior to the child’s birth. The Act is consequently unconstitutional and must be struck down.”
To this, the Reproductive Rights Alliance of more than 30 pro-choice organisations and the commission on gender equality, which joined the case last week as defendants, ask where women feature in this equation.
“The right to decide when and whether to have children is a fundamental right of all women. Women bear the social and economic consequences of having children,” the alliance said.
“They have the constitutional right to choose whether or not to terminate their pregnancies.
“Denying women the right to make choices about when and whether to have children denies women the respect and autonomy that they deserve as full and equal citizens.”
Women’s rights groups believe the court case is timed so that abortion will be an election issue because the case could carry on for months.
“It does not seem feasible that they can succeed,” says the Alliance’s Cheryl Damon, “because they are not challenging sections of Act, but the Act in its entirety. They cannot expect to win the case.
“What they will be hoping for is a lot of media exposure, particularly because their tactic is to use graphic images of the foetus, and use terminology like ‘unborn babies’, instead of ’embryos’ or ‘foetuses’.”