Catriona Macleod

Our system of education is failing those with learning disabilities, writes Catriona Macleod Simphiwe, Thulani and Sipho have never met each other. But they have many things in common, the most striking of which is that the education system has failed them. All three were brought to university psychological centres by their desperate mothers. All […]

In the previous two columns of this series, I examined ignorance, risk-taking, the early onset of menstruation, psychological problems, family and peer influences and coercive sexual relations as factors in teenage pregnancy. In this column I will focus on socio-economic and cultural factors and the role played by health services. Adolescents who have children have […]

In the April column on teenage pregnancy, we saw how teenage pregnancy is defined as a problem because of the disruption of schooling that potentially accompanies it and the economic difficulties that teenage mothers may face. Some of the criticisms of these assumptions were highlighted (that many pregnant girls have already dropped out of school; […]

Soon after the first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994, the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy (CTOP) Act of 1996, which, for the first time, legalised abortion, was passed. In terms of this legislation, women may request abortions up to the 12th week of pregnancy. After this, up to the 20th week, abortions may […]

‘Children bearing children’; ‘this teenage catastrophe’; ‘our greatest demographic disaster’; ‘the premier social evil of the Third World’ … These are all ways in which teenage pregnancy has been described by academics. For many people, teenage pregnancy is a clear-cut issue. It is a social problem that has negative consequences for the individual teenager, her […]