Clandestine Abortion

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Clandestine Abortion in South Africa during
Apartheid (1948-1990) Susanne
Klausen Department of History Carleton University
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Every year at least 19 million pregnancies
worldwide are terminated as dangerous
abortions. 68,000 women die every year from
unsafe abortion. An additional five million
women experience serious complications that
often lead to permanent injury. Source
WHO
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There is wide regional variation in mortality and
morbidity rates. 500,000 unsafe abortions a
year in Europe. 4.2 million unsafe abortions a
year in Africa. 95 percent of women who die
from abortion live in poor countries. A woman
in Africa is 700 times more likely to die from
abortion than is a woman in the West. 100
deaths from abortion per 100,000 live births in
Africa, 40 in Asia, 5 in Europe. Source WHO
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Part I Clandestine Abortion Under Apartheid An
estimated 200,000 women obtained illegal
abortions every year during the 1960s and
1970s. Middle-class white women went to England
or turned to private doctors.
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Poor women in urban centres (blacks and poor
whites) turned to aunties, backstreet
abortionists, or self-aborted.
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1973 prosecution of Dr. Derk Creighton.
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African women in rural areas turned to
traditional healers, self-aborted, or else
committed abandonment or infanticide.
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Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town
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In 1960, the Emergency Department had admitted
1,304 women suffering from septic and
exsanguinated sic incomplete abortions. The
same year the Department of Gynaecology
performed 2,996 minor operations, defined as
mainly abortions, to remove retained products
of conception in cases of incomplete
miscarriage.
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A separate unit (with a small operating theatre
of its own) for cases of abortion would avert
much of the ward sepsis and may alleviate the
pressure on beds. Source Groote Schuur
Annual Report, 1960, p. 30.
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Table 1. Number of Minor Operations Performed
on Women in Groote Schuurs Department of
Gynaecology   Year Coloured White African
Total of Women 1960 n/a n/a n/a 2,804 1961
n/a n/a n/a 2,996 1962 1,983 1,034 366 3,383
1963 1,950 1,063 320 3,333 1964 2,431 1,13
4 432 3,997 1965 2,654 1,090 411 4,155 1966 2
,734 1,162 392 4,288 1967 2,748 1,043 445 4,
236 1968 2,528 801 384 3,713 1969 2,791 898
440 4,129 1970 2,598 873 433 3,904 These
are the years in which surgery was divided into
categories of Major and Minor Operations, the
latter consisting mainly of D and Cs.
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The number of emergency admissions continues to
place a very great strain on medical and nursing
staff and the non-White Gynaecological Wards are
in fact the busiest in the hospital, with the
highest bed occupancy and the greatest patient
turnover. The creation of a septic Shock Unit and
of Septic Shock Unit Registrars and House
Surgeons has greatly facilitated the handling of
these cases but has not relieved the desperate
bed shortage. Source Groote Schuur Annual
Report, 1968, p. 53.
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The large number of cases of incomplete abortion
places a great strain on medical and nursing
staff alike and seriously hampers the work of
the department, the admission of cold cases
having to be cancelled or deferred.
Source Groote Schuur Annual Report,
1966.
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Part 2 The Governments Response In 1973 the
government struck a commission of inquiry into
the problem of abortion. In 1974 it amended the
abortion law, making it more difficult to obtain
a legal abortion.
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1976 Soweto Uprising