Abortion In South Africa

Abortion in South Africa – Social Politics vs Religion

In a country based in the African Continent, abortion is still believed to be taboo. With South Africa’s diverse cultural and religious groups, and their different beliefs and values to life, they are clearly conservative, as none of them allows or condones abortion, under any circumstances. Even in modern days where by European approach to life is highly dominant and influential in the African soil. However, social politics in South Africa legalised termination of pregnancy. Government argues that women should not be forced to conceive if they are not ready, or due to any particular reason. As a result social politics’ research done in communities, the state’s decision to finally legalise

Muslims argue too that the Quran does not promote and is against abortion, just mentioning two of the leading religious groups in South Africa. Residents who believe in culture motivate too that no ancestor shall approve of abortion. Their main concern and focus is of the view of killing a person. Religiously and culturally, believers and followers genuinely are against abortion. There is organised marches, get together etc. planned with the aim of rallying and letting the masses know and be aware that their beliefs are seriously anti-abortion. Unlike social politics, religious groups do not consider more intense reasons behind people’s decision to abort the yet-to-be-born child. Government came to a conclusion of legitimising abortion due to taking into consideration society’s different opinions, thoughts and views on the issue. Reality is, if a woman is raped and falls pregnant, logically the woman would prefer to terminate the pregnancy due to obvious reasons. Revisiting deep rural areas, informal settlements and underdeveloped areas: majority of residents are illiterate and do not have detailed knowledge concerning safe sex and pregnancy prevention. As a result, the pregnancy rate in these particular communities rises unexpectedly. It is debatable to say that abortion may be regarded as a method of contraceptive, amongst conception prevention pills, injection etc. Some people argue that it is just an alternative

Because in a democratic country, the decisions government makes are mostly determined/influenced by major stakeholders, being society at large. Culture and religion policies are less dominant and influential in democratic states. Looking into the future, it is hard to say that the government’s policy of allowing termination of pregnancy to be performed legally, will change. It is the state’s way of promoting a democratic nation. A country where in any person is permitted to enjoy and benefit from their human rights. In this regard, a right to freedom of choice is applied/exercised. Government’s aim is to allow/permit whoever wishes to terminate a pregnancy, to do so, conveniently and free of