Dr Dusi, Dr Google, Stigma And All The Other Reasons Pregnant Women Are Risking Their Lives
Social media platforms are serving up very real, and often very dangerous, ways for people to end their pregnancies, alongside heaps of misinformation about sexual and reproductive health.
But that is just one way women are driven to unsafe and illegal abortion clinics, which can land them in the emergency room or worse.
Thats even though, when done correctly, abortions are safe medical procedures, and many state hospitals and clinics offer them for free with trained medical staff.
So what drives women to seek out unsafe abortions? The reasons include everything from long government waiting lists, to administrative hurdles and stigma, and things even as basic as a lack of information about where to go to get a safe one.
In todays newsletter , Tanya Pampalone and Mia Malan explain why South Africa still as unsafe abortions. Sign up for our newsletter today.
There are piles of R100 notes, a hand holding a tinted vial, a small plastic bag of brown herbs and a bloody sanitary pad with a message in green type: Thank you Dr Dusi. Now Im Free. There is also a phone number where, presumably, youll find someone at the other end of the line eager to help.
If Dr Dusi doesnt pick up, or, more likely, has changed his number, dont worry. There are plenty of others to call. Dozens of them.
On a Friday afternoon in late April this year, the comments stream in a local Facebook group with over 2 800 members was flowing.
Along with an unending scroll of images advertising abortion pills with hand to hand delivery, womb cleaning, surgical abortions with same day service and pain free terminations, the comments were packed with offers to pregnant women from Gugulethu to Germiston and all points in between.