Up to 58% of ‘260,000 abortions’ every year in SA illegal? No data supports this
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South Africa hosted 285 delegates from 26 countries at a conference on reproductive health in July 2018.
In a press release before the gathering, the department of social development said “it is estimated that between 52 and 58% of the estimated 260,000 abortions that take place in South Africa every year are illegal”.
A spokesman for the department, Nomfundo Lentsoane, directed Africa Check to apps.co.za, a website that collates news about South Africa. But the only article we could find mentioning the statistic was a version of the department’s own media release. These figures were also repeated by national media.
Lentsoane added that they “gather information from government institutions”. (Note: We have asked her to clarify.)
Earlier in 2018, we found a claim that 200,000 abortions take place every year in South Africa to be unproven. The national department of health recorded 105,358 abortions in designated health facilities in the 2016/17 financial year, the most recent figures available.
The data would include private providers as they are required to regularly report abortion statistics.
But experts told us there was no independent data on “illegal” terminations - those that take place in undesignated facilities.
In her 2016 paper shared with Africa Check, University of Cape Town researcher Rebecca Hodes said that while the signs are that the rate of these is high, there is “a dearth of statistics on illegal abortion in South Africa”.
Hodes, the director of the Aids and society research unit at the university, said this is due to low reporting and difficulties in capturing the symptoms of such terminations. - Lee Mwiti (11/07/2018)
Further reading:
https://africacheck.org/reports/do-200000-abortions-many-a-repeat-take-place-in-sa-each-year/
In a press release before the gathering, the department of social development said “it is estimated that between 52 and 58% of the estimated 260,000 abortions that take place in South Africa every year are illegal”.
A spokesman for the department, Nomfundo Lentsoane, directed Africa Check to apps.co.za, a website that collates news about South Africa. But the only article we could find mentioning the statistic was a version of the department’s own media release. These figures were also repeated by national media.
Lentsoane added that they “gather information from government institutions”. (Note: We have asked her to clarify.)
Just over 100,000 abortions recorded
Earlier in 2018, we found a claim that 200,000 abortions take place every year in South Africa to be unproven. The national department of health recorded 105,358 abortions in designated health facilities in the 2016/17 financial year, the most recent figures available.
The data would include private providers as they are required to regularly report abortion statistics.
But experts told us there was no independent data on “illegal” terminations - those that take place in undesignated facilities.
In her 2016 paper shared with Africa Check, University of Cape Town researcher Rebecca Hodes said that while the signs are that the rate of these is high, there is “a dearth of statistics on illegal abortion in South Africa”.
Hodes, the director of the Aids and society research unit at the university, said this is due to low reporting and difficulties in capturing the symptoms of such terminations. - Lee Mwiti (11/07/2018)
Further reading:
https://africacheck.org/reports/do-200000-abortions-many-a-repeat-take-place-in-sa-each-year/
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