Reclaiming Our Children: A Blog About Healing After Abortion

Three in jail following botched abortion

Three woman have been arrested for murder following an alleged late-stage abortion, Mpumalanga police said on Tuesday.

"Three women, ages 19, 25, 26, were suspected of aborting a baby on
Monday. They were arrested when community members alerted police about
the suspicious abortion," said Superintendent Abie Khoabane.

"What initially happened was this 19-year-old was in an advanced stage of pregnancy.

"These two convinced her to abort this child. She took some tablets for
the abortion and the child came out alive. They went and buried this
child alive. Hence it is murder," said Khoabane.

Khoabane could not say how many weeks old the aborted foetus was. Under
South African law, abortions beyond 20 weeks are illegal unless the
life of the mother is in danger.

Nurses with special training are allowed to perform abortions up to the
twelfth week of pregnancy. Otherwise, only doctors are allowed to
perform abortions.

Midwives are also allowed to perform abortions under some circumstances.

A post-mortem of the foetus has not yet been performed.

"The post-mortem will determine if it was alive. It will tell us a lot and determine the cause of death," said Khoabane.

He said it was information from the community which alleged the foetus had been born alive.

Khoabane said the three women will appear in Tonga Magistrate's Court soon. – Sapa

Published on the Web by IOL on 2009-05-12 10:25:54

http://www.themercury.co.za/?fSectionId=3535&fArticleId=nw20090512102554213C785630