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The Public Life of Abortion and the Making of South Africa's Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act

This thesis is a study of the making of post-apartheid South Africa's abortion law, the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1996. It focusses on how abortion as a public interest issue at the time of SA's transition from apartheid to democracy shaped the arguments, actors and arenas involved in...

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Main Author: Koekemoer, Ronel
Other Authors: Field, Sean
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Historical Studies 2023
Subjects:
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access_status_str Open Access
author Koekemoer, Ronel
author2 Field, Sean
author_browse Field, Sean
Koekemoer, Ronel
author_facet Field, Sean
Koekemoer, Ronel
author_sort Koekemoer, Ronel
collection Thesis
description This thesis is a study of the making of post-apartheid South Africa's abortion law, the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1996. It focusses on how abortion as a public interest issue at the time of SA's transition from apartheid to democracy shaped the arguments, actors and arenas involved in the development of CTOP. This has the broader goal of denaturalising these institutions and evaluating the role of contextual factors in assessing CTOP's institutional legacy on abortion practices and, by extension, access. Aside from a means to terminate pregnancy, in different historical moments and geographical contexts, abortion has had various meanings and represented specific interests. A more recent manifestation is abortion as a complicated and contested subject of public debate. My dissertation establishes what the public life of abortion looked like at the time of SA's transition and how this public life influenced the law and its legacy for reproductive rights and justice. Medical and legal experts, civil society organisations, and aborting women formed a core network of voices that informed South Africa's progressive law. These contexts and publics require interrogation because of how they constructed CTOP as permissive and liberal. The concomitant perceptions of rights, empowerment, and democratic participation overshadowed the tangible ways that CTOP restricts abortion access.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:33:12.104Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2023
publishDateRange 2023
publishDateSort 2023
publisher Department of Historical Studies
publisherStr Department of Historical Studies
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/37508 The Public Life of Abortion and the Making of South Africa's Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act Koekemoer, Ronel Field, Sean Sen, Anandaroop Historical Studies This thesis is a study of the making of post-apartheid South Africa's abortion law, the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1996. It focusses on how abortion as a public interest issue at the time of SA's transition from apartheid to democracy shaped the arguments, actors and arenas involved in the development of CTOP. This has the broader goal of denaturalising these institutions and evaluating the role of contextual factors in assessing CTOP's institutional legacy on abortion practices and, by extension, access. Aside from a means to terminate pregnancy, in different historical moments and geographical contexts, abortion has had various meanings and represented specific interests. A more recent manifestation is abortion as a complicated and contested subject of public debate. My dissertation establishes what the public life of abortion looked like at the time of SA's transition and how this public life influenced the law and its legacy for reproductive rights and justice. Medical and legal experts, civil society organisations, and aborting women formed a core network of voices that informed South Africa's progressive law. These contexts and publics require interrogation because of how they constructed CTOP as permissive and liberal. The concomitant perceptions of rights, empowerment, and democratic participation overshadowed the tangible ways that CTOP restricts abortion access. 2023-03-20T11:24:24Z 2023-03-20T11:24:24Z 2022 2023-03-15T13:10:56Z Master Thesis Masters MA http://hdl.handle.net/11427/37508 eng application/pdf Department of Historical Studies Faculty of Humanities
spellingShingle Historical Studies
Koekemoer, Ronel
The Public Life of Abortion and the Making of South Africa's Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act
thesis_degree_str Master's
title The Public Life of Abortion and the Making of South Africa's Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act
title_full The Public Life of Abortion and the Making of South Africa's Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act
title_fullStr The Public Life of Abortion and the Making of South Africa's Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act
title_full_unstemmed The Public Life of Abortion and the Making of South Africa's Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act
title_short The Public Life of Abortion and the Making of South Africa's Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act
title_sort public life of abortion and the making of south africa s choice on termination of pregnancy act
topic Historical Studies
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/37508
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