Abortions

The death of an 18yr due to an abortion a couple of weeks ago raised a few interesting points -

 

- although abortions had been made legal about 5yrs ago, it is not offered at the Public Hospitals and one locally trained surgeon said he would refuse to do one if the mother's life was not in danger

- she already had two children- a 2yr old and and a 4month yr old : what sort of contraceptive advice if any are  given to under-aged mothers - surely that should be incorporated before they leave the hospital or at post-natal checks if any-- by trained personnel - even a social worker if not a medically trained person.

- the person who performed the abortion was a doctor - apparently the bowel was perforated, but she suffered for a few days ( where was the doctor?), was misdiagnosed at Public but by the time they got it right it was too late and she died from septicaemia 

- also the abortion was performed at an ad hoc surgery-- not designed for that purpose.

- the alarming ignorance of the 18yr old's husband, who obviously felt contraception is a woman's concern and claimed not to know that his wife had gone for an abortion.

- the Government's spokesperson's statement: ‘Lack of education could be cause of women seeking pregnancy terminations from uncertified doctors' (Well- commission Social Services to conduct a quick study and address that problem!)

This sadly reflects a growing problem:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/19/unsafe-abortions-rising-world-africa?fb=native&CMP=FBCNETTXT9038 but looks as if we've taken another step backwards in the provision of Health Services as the current set of people making decisions are not pro-active and just reactive depending on the foreigners to state the obvious and provide funds before stirring themselves out of their inertia to do anything.

There appears to be no cohesive Health Policy and the one Government person who has got a further qualification in Public Health ( no substitution for common sense but better than nothing...) is dealing with Sports and Culture...?

Maybe one should point out that good health requires good food and making good life decisions and education is KEY.