Article

An exploration of the reasons women give for choosing legal termination of pregnancy at Soshanguve Community Health Centre, Pretoria, South Africa

Published in: South African Family Practice
Volume 60 , issue 4 , 2018 , pages: 126–131

DOI: 10.1080/20786190.2018.1432138

Author(s): Carrien Steyn , Indiran Govender Department of Family Medicine and Primary Health Care, South Africa , John Velaphi Ndimande

Keywords: legal termination of pregnancy , reasons for choosing termination of pregnancy , financial difficulties , contraceptive failure

Download full text Get new issue alerts

Abstract

Background: Termination of pregnancy (TOP) is one of the most commonly performed gynaecological procedures in the world and was legalised in South Africa in 1996 with the passing of the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1996 (Act No. 29 of 1996). Utilisation of the TOP service increased significantly after the promulgation of the Act, to the extent that 7% of pregnant women in South Africa chose to terminate their pregnancies legally in 2012. Worldwide, women most commonly state their reasons for choosing TOP as a desire to stop or postpone childbearing. Although several international studies have been done in this regard, the reasons for women requesting legalised TOP in South Africa have not been explored in depth.

« Knowledge, attitudes and practices of healthcare workers about healthcare waste management at a district hospital in KwaZulu-Natal

Performance of free prostate-specific antigen ratio in differentiating between prostatic cancer and benign prostatic lesions at a referral hospital in South Africa »