Clandestine Abortion in South Africa during Apartheid (1948-1990) Susanne Klausen

1. Clandestine Abortion in South Africa during Apartheid (1948-1990) Susanne Klausen Department of History Carleton University

2. 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

3. 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

5. 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.

6. Poor women in urban centres (blacks and “poor whites”) turned to “aunties,” backstreet abortionists, or self-aborted.

7. 1973 prosecution of Dr. Derk Creighton.

8. African women in rural areas turned to traditional healers, self-aborted, or else committed abandonment or infanticide.

9. Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town

10. 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.

11. “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.

12. Table 1. Number of “Minor Operations”* Performed on Women in Groote Schuur’s 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 1,134 432 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.

13. “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.

14. “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.

15. Part 2: The Government’s 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.

16. 1976 Soweto Uprising