Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi released the statistics:- A total of 77,771 legal abortions were performed in South Africa in 2011, a 31% increase since 2010!
In 2010, the health department said, 59,447 abortions were carried out! Although the new statistics illustrate alarming trends in abortion among South Africans and the youth, I would like to remind the Department of Health that it was the legalization of abortion that gave the youth this free reign in the first place. It is encouraging a culture of death.

In legalising abortion the door was opened for even more illegal abortions to take place, especially also with late term abortions! So, illegal abortions have become even more rampant in South Africa. The increase in demand, a consequence of legalization of abortion, is a result of pregnant teenagers using termination of pregnancy as a means of contraception. This has caused overflowing abortion clinics! At Dora Nginza Hospital, in Port Elizabeth, between 16 and 20 young women are being seen daily, and many women that are turned away are hence resorting to backstreet abortions, which also result in an increase in maternal deaths. 

Stats SA recorded 160 754 teen pregnancies between July 2008 and July 2010. Child pregnancies in primary schools are also more frequent. Escalating teen pregnancies are a result of government distribution of condoms, the government grant, an increase in pornography, and sex education instead of abstinence education. While some girls are raped or enticed into having sex by "sugar daddies" - with promises of money or gifts - others use abortion as a means of contraception because they don't want to use condoms or other forms of birth control. The British Government’s own policies, in the same way, promoting “safe sex,” contraceptives and “free” abortion, have caused “repeat abortions”.
The majority of American teenagers now abstain from sex before marriage - according to the 2011 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey. The House Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee released a report entitled ‘A Better Approach to Teenage Pregnancy Prevention: Sexual Risk Avoidance’. The report examined the theory and the evidence behind both Sexual Risk Avoidance Abstinence Education and Comprehensive Sex Education, and concluded that abstinence education is the superior approach.

An abstract from “The Effect of Abortion Legalization on Sexual Behavior: Evidence from Sexually Transmitted Diseases” by Jonathan Klick and Thomas Stratmann, states that: Unwanted pregnancy represents a major cost of sexual activity. When abortion was legalized in a number of states (in America) in 1969 and 1970 (and nationally in 1973), this cost was reduced. We predict that abortion legalization generated incentives leading to an increase in sexual activity, accompanied by an increase in sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Using Centers for Disease
Control data on the incidence of gonorrhea and syphilis by state, we test the hypothesis that abortion legalization led to an increase in sexually transmitted diseases.

In South Africa, amongst the Zulu people of Kwa Zulu Natal,”We abstain from sex to protect ourselves from diseases, unwanted and unplanned pregnancies," said 21-year-old virgin Mbali Ngcobo. "It helps teach us to respect ourselves, our bodies and to love ourselves by remaining pure." An organization, established in 2009, had noted that many girls as young as 12 were falling pregnant. After educating girls and encouraging them to live a pure lifestyle as virgin’s until marriage, (abstinence education as opposed to sex education) they have seen a significant drop in child pregnancy.

South Africa still seems to be promoting condoms as a primary prevention of HIV/AIDS instead of warning the young people that sexual promiscuity carries much more agility in terms of HIV/AIDS, unwanted pregnancies, abortion and broken relationships.

On behalf of pro-lifers of South Africa I therefore call on the government to review the law on abortion, taking cognizance of the reality that it is the legalization of abortion that has laid the foundation for the crisis South Africa is now facing with low morals, a huge increase in both legal and illegal abortions.

Dianne Steven
Email: dsprison@yahoo.com