* Action GEM is a
publication currently covering the Regional Consultation on Unsafe
Abortions, a first ever of its kind in Africa, currently underway in Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia.

South Africa: Dismantling racist and sexist injustice

By Rosemary Okello
______________________________________________________________________

Khosa Xaba joined the African National Congress (ANC) women's league
as a student to fight against apartheid. But her fight for racial and
social justice did not stop with the dismantling of the racial system
which denied Blacks their human rights. The next fight on her agenda
was the discrimination met by black women in accessing reproductive
health services.

" When apartheid was dismantled, we used the opportunity to bring to
the public that black women were unable to access the services," says
Xaba who worked with the Women's Health Project in South Africa.

White women, says Xaba, who is now Ipas' Country Director in South
Africa, received all the services they needed. " They had access to
safe abortion, because they could pay for it. The practicality of
these services fitted into apartheid's ideology, and that is what we
used to fight the Abortion Sterilisation Act of 1975, which was
restrictive."

According to Xaba, who has worked consistently and tirelessly on
women's reproductive health rights, the country's new Constitution,
adopted in 1994, paved the way for the country's progressive,
unrestricted, abortion law, because it guaranteed and recognized
reproductive, sexual rights and also the right to sexual orientation.

From the start of the campaign for women's access to abortion on
request, Xaba says they knew they had to work smart and strategic . "
We had to do a lot of work in trying to inform people all the way from
the grass roots level, to the parliamentarians, to policy makers and
also service providers."

A committee was set up in 1994 to spearhead the campaign for safe
abortion. It worked closely with women from all political parties,
especially the ANC, and had access to all the parliamentarians,
especially when the Bill was being drafted. " We gave them facts and
provided research on how women's lives were being affected by early
marriage, incest, rape among other issues."

The research, which focused on women between the ages of 14-49 ,
revealed that all women were at risk of dying from unsafe abortions,
unless something was done.. " The research shifted people's beliefs,
because it documented that it was not only the young people that were
at risk of unsafe abortion."

By 1995-96 when the Bill was in Parliament, the women's coalition held
various meetings with provincial legislators asking to be invited to
their meetings to talk about the proposed legislation.. " We needed to
take the information out there and in the (Women's Health) project I
was working in during that time, one of our aims was to prevent women
from dying unnecessarily."

Other strategies used involved setting up committees within
Parliament, and the role of various NGOs providing the
Parliamentarians with information became crucial.

Women from all over South Africa went to Cape Town (the seat of the
South African Parliament) to give submissions on why the Bill should
be passed. Xaba says the women leading the campaign raised funds to
ensure that rural women, who are the most affected by not having
access to safe abortion, could speak to the Parliament.

" I remember one case that caught Parliamentarians off guard, after
they had been convinced by the Catholic Church that the Bill would
promote fetus killings - a woman from a rural area gave a hearing on
how a priest impregnated her and took her to abort. This did it, and
the Bill was passed into law."

According to Xaba, when the law was being debated , an alliance called
Reproductive Rights Alliance was formed with a mission to ensure
access to safe abortion for all. Since the enactment of the Choice on
Termination of Pregnancy Act(92) of 1996, this group has monitored
how the law works through a publication called 'Barometer.'

Even though South Africans can now claim to be among the few African
countries which has such a progressive abortion law, Xaba says the
country should not rest on its laurels, because there is still a lot
of work to be done.." Women are still dying from unsafe abortion," she
said.

Xaba says that she hopes women in Africa will use political
opportunities and lobby for safe abortion laws in their countries. "
Pushing the issue as much as possible is the name of the game."
(ENDS)