NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO. 1486
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 03 June 2011
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO. 14)
Mr M Waters (DA) to ask the Minister of Health:
(1) Whether his department has measures in place for closing illegal
abortion clinics; if not, why not; if so, (a) on which (i) Act and
(ii) provisions does it rely to do so, (b) how many illegal abortion
clinics have been closed to date, (c) in which province was each
clinic situated and (d) when was each clinic closed;
(2) whether any action has been taken against persons responsible for
operating these illegal abortion clinics; if not, why not; if so, what
action?
NW1653E
REPLY:
1) Any abortion performed outside an authorised health facility is a
criminal activity. Anybody engaged in such practice needs to be
reported to the Police and the Department of Health, as an interested
party, will gladly help anybody who reports such incident to the
Police, if we come across such information.
2) The Department is aware of the SAPS having arrested some individuals
however the Department does not have the information relating to the
locality of the facilities. This information may be obtained from the
Department of Justice.
END.