Choice on the Termination of Pregnancy Amendment Act (CTOP) and the Traditional Health Practioners Act were both declared invalid by the Constitutional Court of South Africa on Thursday. The Act allowed qualified nurses to perform abortions up to 12 weeks.

Objections and a formal legal challenge was brought by Doctors for Life International who claimed that there had been insufficient opportunity for public input before the bills were initially passed.  The Constitutional Court held that the majority of neither the provinces nor the National Council of Provinces held promised public hearings on the bills due to time constraints. A number of organizations, including International Doctors for Life, had requested hearings.  Abortion has been legal in South Africa since 1996.

The invalidity order has been suspended for 18 months to enable Parliament to hold sufficient hearings for public participation Constitutionally guaranteed. As politics leading up to the next Presidential election heat up, these hearings could provide a platform for anti-abortion organizations to exploit existing cultural differences concerning abortion.

ChristianView Network  had offered R2000 ( $300+- USD) to any MP who would defend the law in public debate, according to CVN director Philip Rosenthal-- evidently proud of his failed attempt to bribe public officials.

In South Africa where access to health care is severely limited by resources, distance and cost, this decision disproportionately affects rural, poor South Africans, who are more likely to depend upon nurses rather than physicians for their health care.  In a country with 40% reported unemployment, massive child poverty and widespread homelessness-this is a severe blow to public health, as well as to women's rights in South Africa.  The staggering numbers of AIDS babies and orphans will also be exacerbated by further curtailment of abortion availability.

The same day the decision was announced, a live newborn, umbilicus still attached, was found in a dumpster in the Eastern Cape town of Port Elizabeth.

Women's and health advocates remain strong and active, despite setbacks. Earlier this month, The Women's Legal Centre in Pretoria announced that they plan to file a class-action suit to counter the 1935 "concealment of birth" section of the General Law Amendment Act.  The Act was used as a fallback law to prosecute when there was not proof of illegal abortion.  "Concealment of Birth" includes all children whether dead "before, during or after birth..." and is still being used to prosecute women.