ANC: Health dept must probe illegal abortions

Follow the trail of the multi billion US drugs industry and the plan to kill off the poor , so that the rich can have some more.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misoprostol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pfizer
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/5502327/Obama_is_the_most_extreme_proabortion_politician_in_the_history_of_Congress/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7847651.stm
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Obamas-science-czar-suggested-compulsory-abortion-sterilization-50783612.html
http://spuc-director.blogspot.com/2009/01/partys-over-obama-signs-order-to-abort.html

I am the Director of the MRC Gender & Health Research Unit and I am concerned that there are very important factual errors in your story. It is quite true that there is a problem of illegal abortion in South africa, which is very sad given that we have one of the most progressive abortion laws in the world. The roots of this problems lie in the failure of the Health Department Nationally and in provinces to adequately inform the public on their rights under the Choice in Termination of Pregnancy Act and to ensure that service provision coverage is satisfactory across provinces. This is what is needed to prevent people profiteering from backstreet abortion.
Misoprostol is not an unsafe method for inducing abortion. Nor is it an "illegal drug", and the information from the MCC quoted here is wrong. It is widely prescribed for a range of indications, including the one it was registered for which is the treatment of stomach ulcers. It is used in termination of pregnancy services for softening the cervix to make the surgical procedure easier, and is used in obstretrics for induction of labour. Across the African continent abortion unsafety has been reduced over the last 10-15 years by the increasd availability of misoprostol because it can induce bleeding and miscarriage safely in the first three months of pregnancy. I think its important that the public are correctly informed about these matters.

If ANC want to know why women are going to "street peddlers" all they need to do is ask the thousands of women who are unable to access public health facilities (where medial abortion is currently NOT available) or afford private health facility costs. The Department of Health has still to release guidelines for medical abortions that will make them available in the public health sector. The lack of service delivery is costing women's lives, the department must take responsibility and make services available to save women's lives. We must also reduce the stigma that is associated with abortion so that women and girls are able to insist on services that are safe.