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'Let HIV moms have abortions'
IOL-Health
2007-08-02

HIV-positive pregnant women should routinely be offered the choice of abortion in the context of the serious challenge the pandemic presents to maternal health, says the Health Systems Trust.

It has responded with a submission after a constitutional court judgment which asked for increased public participation in the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Amendment Act. In response to the judgment, provincial governments are set to hold a series of provincial hearings around the country in August.

The purpose of the act was to help the health system provide better access to high quality termination of pregnancy services, and research shows it has been hugely successful in achieving the objective.

There has been a phenomenal 91 percent decrease in abortion related maternal mortality and morbidity in the last three years, according to Health Systems Trust chief executive Dr Lilian Dudley. However, while the trust recognised the success, Dudley said, it wanted to emphasise the challenge to maternal health presented by HIV/AIDS. In addition to measures to prevent perinatal transmission, and to offer HIV-positive women high quality antenatal and post-natal care, the option of voluntary abortion should be offered as part of the continuum of care for HIV and Aids, she said. Presently, these services were not integrated, and HIV-positive pregnant women were not offered the choice to terminate unwanted pregnancies.

Care must be taken to see that women are afforded an unreserved choice to terminate or continue their pregnancies, Dudley stressed.
The trust's suggestion is that the health system be transformed to maintain and increase access to safe abortion, and that high quality abortion services form part of integrated sexual and reproductive health services, including HIV/AIDS services.

It was also critical, Dudley said, that women were properly informed via community based outreach, so that they were aware of measures that would increase their access to safe legal abortion. By virtually eliminating abortion related death and illness, safe abortion had decreased a particular burden on the health system in South Africa. But HIV/AIDS presents another challenge in terms of maternal health, Dudley warned.

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	Related Health Statistics
	TOPs (Terminations of Pregnancy) (0000-00-00) ANC coverage (0000-00-00) HIV prevalence (%) (antenatal) (2004-10-04) Per capita expenditure (non-hospital PHC) (2007-08-17) TOPs by maternal age (%) (0000-00-00)

	Related Events
	8th Reproductive Health Priorities Conference (2002-10-01) Masters of Philosophy in Maternal and Child Health - 2006/07 (2005-09-30) Integrated HIV/AIDS services in district and primary health care settings - short course (2008-02-11) Health Sector Reform and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights: MPH/MSc Module and Short Course (2007-11-26) 5th Annual Congress of Midwives of South Africa (2005-11-29)

	Related links
	The Perinatal Education Programme (PEP) Perinatal Education Programme (PEP) Department of Health (South Africa) The Mvula Trust AIDS Law Project

	Related Content
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