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South Africa: Overview
Current Projects
Pathfinder International has worked in South Africa since 1996, and has a long-running partnership with the Planned Parenthood Association of South Africa (PPASA), the largest and oldest South African NGO working in the field of reproductive health. Recently, Pathfinder and PPASA worked to support safe abortion services in the country.
Current and Recent Projects in South Africa
IPPF Safe Abortion Action Fund: A two-year grant from the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) supporting safe abortion activities in Ghana, India, Mozambique, and South Africa.
Safe Abortion Services
When legal barriers to safe abortion in South Africa were lifted in 1996, rates of life-threatening unsafe abortion were high, particularly among poor women disadvantaged by apartheid. Though the country’s abortion law is currently the most progressive in the region, many misperceptions about the law and abortion procedures continue to hamper access to safe abortion services. For example:
- Many individuals remain unaware of the abortion law’s complexities, and are thus less inclined to seek safe abortion services;
- Many would-be safe abortion providers continue to profess anti-abortion attitudes, which significantly decreases access to services;
- Providers who are initially willing to perform abortion (mainly nurse-midwives) are often harassed by their colleagues, communities and churches, until they no longer offer services; and
- A general lack of adequately trained providers and physical resources means that many designated facilities are unable to offer safe abortion, irrespective of stigma or provider attitudes.
In accordance with the Department of Health’s National Strategic Plan for the Implementation of the Choice of Termination of Pregnancy, Pathfinder and PPASA worked to:
- Create a favorable social context for implementing safe abortion services. This was accomplished through sensitizing clinic staff and community members and addressing the many myths and misconceptions about the safe termination of pregnancy.
- Support health care providers, through trainings, facility assessments, and ongoing assistance, to provide quality, client-friendly safe abortion services; and
- Ensure that youth have access to safe abortion, as well as related reproductive health information and services.
Pathfinder believes that while all women should have access to safe abortion services, the key to reducing reliance on abortion is providing women with the means to safely control their fertility. Pathfinder works to ensure that all safe abortion clients are provided with information about and access to modern family planning methods and services.
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