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Press release:
"Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Amendment Bill"

DEMONSTRATION OUTSIDE KZN PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE 15 OCTOBER 2004

A CFT placard demonstration will be held from 11am outside the KZN Parliament in Pietermaritzburg on 15 October 2004. CFT members, together with other organisations, are protesting the "Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Amendment Bill". The Health Committee is to give a briefing on the bill on Friday 15 October at noon, in the ANC Caucus Room, Parliamentary Complex, 239 Longmarket Street.

Unfortunately, the Health Committee has given little chance for the public to make submissions. This is in keeping with the tradition of ignoring public opinion which is overwhelmingly against abortion on demand.

A national survey by the HSRC, of nearly 5 000 adults, indicates that "Government policy on moral issues is out of sync with the opinions of the electorate." The 8 October press release by the HSRC shows that: `Opposition to abortion if the family concerned has a low income and cannot afford more children is even higher. Seven out of ten (70%) think it is "always wrong" under such circumstances. Only one in ten (10%) think that it is "not wrong at all". More than three-quarters (75%) of respondents in KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga and Limpopo think that it is "always wrong". Whereas almost three-quarters (74%) of black Africans think that abortion is always wrong under such circumstances, this is the case with 59% of Indians and 57% of whites and coloureds.’ (HSRC, "Rights or wrongs? Public attitudes towards moral values", press release, 8 October 2004)

The `Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Amendment Bill’ is objectionable to South Africans in general and KwaZulu-Natal citizens in particular, because:

1. It seeks to enforce a moral wrong on our people. Abortion is the destruction of unborn children and every law which seeks to make this criminal act easier to access only exacerbates the offense.
2. In effect this bill seeks to make nurses into surgeons.
3. It does not provide a specific conscience clause. According to the `Parliamentary Monitoring Group’, the bill does not provide for objection "based on conscientious grounds…it does not provide for choice as the emphasis was on protecting citizens rather than the personal interests of medical practictioners…".
   
   This means that nurses/doctors and other health workers will be forced against their consiences to participate in murder. Should they resist the state they will be severely punished with fines and sentences. Fines of R200,000 and 10 years in prison are the Government’s suggestion.

Accordingly, we call on our KwaZulu-Natal Parliament to reject the "Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Amendment Bill" and rather place emphasis on the Right to Life and abstinence education.

or Rev D. King 072 6913232