Access to safe abortion care during disaster situations in South Africa

Abstract

The purpose of this mini dissertation is to bring to light the importance of access to safe abortion care during disaster situations in South Africa. The reason for this is safe abortion care is an integral part of sexual and reproductive health and more importantly it is a lifesaving component of healthcare. It is critical that measures be put in place to ensure uninterrupted access to safe abortion care during disasters because of the negative impact of disasters on health systems.

Unfortunately, disaster management is silent on access to safe abortion care from a legislative and policy perspective, even in humanitarian settings the response packages do not include abortion care as an essential service. Focus is more on gender-based violence and other medical care services. This is caused by a variety of factors including laws that criminalise abortion and cultural and religious attitudes towards abortion and stigma. Within the context of South Africa at the core of this is the lack of respect for reproductive justice, agency, and bodily autonomy of people capable of pregnancy. The South African constitution and Choice of Termination of Pregnancy Act 2008 are clear on the protection of access to abortion care however the abortion ecosystem is marred with a number of challenges. They include conscientious objection by health providers, scarcity of facilities in rural areas and lack of education at community level.

This mini dissertation advocates for mainstreaming of sexual and reproductive rights, more particularly safe abortion care within the disaster management value chain. Sexual and reproductive rights must be enshrined within disaster legislation and policies. This will enable disaster planning, response, and recovery to be implemented from a reproductive justice perspective, this will ensure that access to safe abortion care remains at the centre of disaster management. The mini dissertation further encourages the utilisation of innovative measures to ensure that access to safe abortion care is not disrupted during disaster situations. These include self-managed abortions and utilisation of technology for access to this important lifesaving procedure.