The KwaZulu-Natal Health department will launch a campaign against illegal abortion.
Spokesperson Sam Mkhwanazi said on Monday that the department was not happy about “the proliferation of advertisements on the lamp-posts and electric boxes promising safe, quick and pain free abortions exacerbates the challenge posed by illegal, backstreet abortions, which pose a health risk to the young mothers and women.”
Mwkhwanazi said data showed that from 2014 to now 20,013 women were admitted to different hospitals within the province as a a result of “incomplete abortions” and a further 1,455 abortions were septic.
The KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC will launch a campaign in Pietermaritzburg on Tuesday to “call for action against illegal abortions, and promote access to safe, legal abortion as women’s health and human rights issue.”
The campaign will fight stigma associated with abortion, clampdown on illegal back street abortion clinics, and empower women with the right information they need to make informed decision.
– African News Agency (ANA)
picture: IOL
