Bogus Abortion Doctors Under Fire

06 July, 2009

SCRAPING THE BARREL: Acting iTrump Manager Hoosen Moolla removes an illegal sticker near Warwick Junction advertising abortions Pictures: THEMBA KHUMALO

By Nondu Ngcongo

The Municipality is clamping down on bogus abortion doctors, with a poster cleanup campaign, a public appeal and the arrest of six suspects. City Manager Michael Sutcliffe accused backstreet abortion practitioners of preying on vulnerable women and said stickers and pamphlets advertising “safe abortions” were illegal, misleading and contributed significantly to city centre litter.

“We have tried to clean up these advertisements, but no sooner do we scrape them off the wall and lampposts than more are put up. But we won’t be discouraged. We are doing our best to fight these ‘doctors’,” Sutcliffe said. He was speaking after six alleged bogus doctors were arrested by the Metro Police, accompanied by officials from the Inner-Thekwini Regeneration and Urban Management Programme (iTrump).

Captain Kacey Naicker of Metro Police confirmed the doctors had been arrested and were expected to appear in court shortly. He said that on a recent visit to the Westwalk arcade in the city centre, iTrump and police officials were shocked to discover candles, sponges and traditional medicines in the rooms of people advertising themselves as abortion doctors.

“It is weird and certainly not a proper place to terminate a pregnancy,” Naicker said. He said one of the “doctors” told them his ancestors helped him figure out how many months pregnant clients were. The “doctor” then picked a suitable medicine.

Acting iTrump Manager Hoosen Moolla said: “Bogus doctors are exploiting teenagers and charge exorbitant sums. In one such case, a bogus doctor was found to have R1-million in his bank account”. He said government hospitals had reported an increase in the number of secondary infections they treated as a direct result of unsafe abortion clinics.

“Most of these places don’t even have a room to lie down in until the whole process is complete. As a result, we have found a lot of foetuses in public toilets around the CBD,” Moola said. He urged teenagers seeking abortions to contact reputable hospitals where the procedure was safe and affordable.

“Medicines used are not laboratory tested and the patients’ wombs can be damaged, putting them in danger of not conceiving again. They could even die,” Moola said. He said authorities were working on tracing the suppliers of these tablets and asked the public to report bogus doctors and anyone handing out or pasting up abortion pamphlets to their nearest police station.

He warned landlords and managing agents of buildings to ensure their tenants were not involved in illegal activities and said it was their responsibility to report infringements to the police.

ngcongon@durban.gov.za

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