Abortion scandal hits school
2004-11-17 08:07
Johannesburg - "I am seeking justice because my grandchild is dead. It took him four-and-a-half hours to die."
This is what an emotional mother from Durban had to say on Tuesday about the trauma her 18-year-old daughter went through when an abortion clinic gave her abortion medication in February this year despite the fact that she was already 28 weeks pregnant.
A school counsellor allegedly arranged for Crystal Osler to visit the clinic without informing her parents, Rose and Henry.
The mother and daughter, as well as the organisation Doctors for Life (DFL), started proceedings in the Durban High Court on Tuesday against the principal of Danville Park Girls' High, the counsellor, the governing body and the KwaZulu-Natal MEC for education.
They also instituted claims against Rose Clinic, its owner, Dr Vikash Nundall, and a midwife, a Ms Pillay.
The mother is claiming R100 000 for post-traumatic stress (PTS) and the daughter R250 000 for PTS and serious depression.
Mrs Osler says the counsellor at her daughter's school phoned around for the cheapest clinic and apparently found out that she could have the procedure done for R600 at Rose Clinic.
The clinic allegedly gave the young woman abortion medication and told her "not to look when her water broke and to flush it down the toilet".
Two days later, during a follow-up visit, the clinic allegedly realised that the pregnancy was much further along. No spontaneous abortion had occurred, but Crystal was already in labour.
The school phoned Mrs Osler and her husband only that afternoon when their daughter was on her way to Addington Hospital.
"The baby boy weighed 950g when he was born at 14:40 that afternoon, 50g too little to be kept alive in a state hospital. How bad would it have been if my daughter had given birth in the toilet?
"The clinic messed up. I would have had a grandchild. I would have sold all I had to rather take my daughter to a private hospital if I had known about her pregnancy."
The school governing body (SGB) denied on Tuesday that the school arranged an abortion for Crystal "in secret" or that the school had acted unlawfully.
"The principal and school counsellor had the young woman's best interest at heart throughout," the SGB said in a statement.
DFL said in a media statement that the young woman alleged that the clinic performed an illegal third-trimester abortion. DFL now asks that the clinic and its owner be banned from performing abortions.
Crystal was already 18 years old when she was given the medication. By law, the clinic did not have to inform the parents in such a case.