Issued by: African National Congress
Statement by Dr Abe Nkomo MP, Chairperson, Portfolio Committee on Health.
Reacting to suggestions by the National Party that the Termination of Pregnancy Bill has been `steamrollered' through Parliament, Health Committee Chairperson, Dr Abe Nkomo said today:
"This is cheap politics and utterly hypocritical coming from the party which first introduced abortion to South Africa.
"The Abortion and Sterlisation Act was introduced by the NP in 1975. It has provided termination of pregnancy services only to women from privileged communities who have the means and the money to negotiate the bureaucratic obstacles which the National Party placed in the way of access.
"Submissions to the Portfolio Committee hearings stressed again and again the need for improved access and true freedom of choice for all South African women. That is what the ANC has delivered, in line with its election promise. We apologise to no one - least of all the party which was prepared to let thousands of women die with no freedom and no hope.
"The suggestion that the democratic process has somehow been subverted is both scurilous and rediculous. The Bill is the result of the widest possible period of consultation which began in 1994. After a year of deliberation the report of the Ad-Hoc Committee was considered and approved by Parliament.
"Now after receiving almost a hundred oral submissions the Portfolio Committee has made amendments based on the public's input.
"In addition, Committee went into Committee for deliberations for four full days. Under the NP, the Committee system was an uncritical machine for processing the instructions of government. We have changed it from a conveyor belt to an open and transparent democratic institution.
"The NP should concentrate more on improving the lives of improverished and oppressed women and less on fabricating stories in the hope of scoring cheap political points."
For further info. Nkomo MP 021 403 3127/9 23 October 1996