You know what? Cool. You want facts? Let's look at the facts. Let's look at why the Act of 1975 is utter bullocks.
First things first
An ALL-WHITE, ALL-MALE committee was appointed in 1973 to draft legislation regulating the availability of abortion services.

[Thread] https://twitter.com/A_SEVERIN6/status/1276642769574989825

By 1975, the committee presented, and parliament subsequently passed, the Abortion and Sterilization Act. These were all white men tasked to making a health policy that ensured safe abortions. Their advocacy point claimed it would increase access to safe abortion services.

Unsurprisingly, they failed. The law failed to improve the reproductive of health of women as was their initial motive. The South African parliament framed the 1975 Abortion Act in such a manner that it seemed to grant greater freedom to women seeking abortions.

However, by narrowly specifying the conditions under which abortions could be obtained, the new law actually made it more difficult to procure abortions. Under the 1975 Abortion and Sterilization Act, abortions could be performed legally only when a pregnancy...

...could seriously threaten a woman's life or her physical or mental health; could cause severe handicap to the child; or was the result of rape (WHICH HAD TO BE PROVED), incest or other unlawful intercourse, such as with a woman with a permanent mental handicap.

As if that's not enough, to qualify for an abortion under these circumstances, women had to receive approval from two independent physicians, neither of whom could perform the actual procedure. Some times the approval of a psychiatrist or a magistrate was necessary.

Now @A_SEVERIN6 and Co, these are the impacts of that Act. The data is however more than what is presented, reason being that surveillance of backdoor abortions is limited and most women didn't speak out due to social stigma and legal consequences. That being said, let's move on.

Women continued seeking terminations of pregnancies despite the possibilities of serious health risks. Admissions to gynecologic wards increased substantially due to women presenting with incomplete and septic abortions.

Maternal morbidity and mortality resulting from septic abortions also increased. Moreover, the 1,000 or so legal abortions performed in South Africa annually represented a tiny fraction of all abortions carried out.

Estimates of the number of clandestine(backdoor) abortions were dramatically larger, ranging from 120,000 to 250,000 per year between 1975 and 1996.Research Council of South Africa began, in 1993, to monitor complications of unsafe abortions.

According to adjusted estimates from that study, approximately 45,000 women were admitted to hospitals for spontaneous abortions or complications of induced abortions in 1994.

Of these, more than 12,000 had moderate-to-severe complications resulting from clandestine abortions, and more than 400 died from septic abortions.
Mind you this is still an underestimate because not every woman was willing to speak out. Some suffered in silence,...

...suicidal depression was also on the rise. Take note that this research was done in 1994 when the population was smaller.

In Namibia, 2017, HEALTH minister Bernard Haufiku has called for the revision of the law criminalising abortion in the country after an unprecedented 7 335 illegal cases were recorded at state facilities last year alone.
In ONE YEAR ompwilikini. One year.

Haufiku said the figures could reach 10 000 since many such cases involving women aged below 25 years go unreported.
Of those 7335 cases only 138 were legally authorized. That's 2%. 2. Mbali!!

Oshakati State Hospital recorded 766 cases; Onandjokwe Lutheran Hospital, 621; Rundu State Hospital, 419; Outapi State Hospital, 405; Swakopmund State Hospital, 329; Walvis Bay State Hospital, 302;

Otjiwarongo State Hospital, 246; Katima Mulilo State Hospital, 201; Gobabis State Hospital, 174; Engela State Hospital, 126; Rehoboth State Hospital, 121; and Okahao State Hospital 105 cases.

An illegal abortion is only presented to health facilities when it is incomplete, or if the woman develops complications such as haemorrhaging and infections.
It is of major concern, as unsafe abortions pose a major risk to women's physical and mental health.

Now you can argue "morality" and "murder" all you want. Keep the above facts in mind and understand why we say the law against abortion is oppressive towards women. A law that gives zero fxcks about women's choices, women's voices, women's mental health and physical health.

@Mikko10_ @_Kondja @Caesar_9010 @ndeapo__ I wanna end MY Twitter pro choice debate with those facts. If those do not at least make you consider the fact it's time to relook the abortion legislation then I'm afraid there's nothing else anyone can say.