Pregnant and not wanting baby? There is help

Get help if you are carrying an unwanted baby: that’s the advice given by the Department of Social Development. It says its concerned about the number of new-born babies found dumped by their mothers.

Department spokeperson Lumka Ollifant says that young women opt to abandon their babies instead of considering other options. In the North West in the past two months lone, four new-borns have been found dead and dumped.

But dumping a new-born baby is a criminal offense and both the mother, and the nay other person who assist her, can be arrested for murder.

In Tlhabane, near Rustenburg, two babies were found in a space of two days. A few months ago IN Oukasie, Tlhabane, children playing on the street discovered a baby’s body. Police said the baby was in a black refuse bag. The unsuspecting children first saw an umbilical cord from the bag and then discovered a baby inside.

If you pre find yourself pregnant and the bay is not wanted, your first choice should be to contact your local clinic and discuss the options. You should consider having a safe abortion at the clinic or  giving the baby for adoption by a social agency or to a friend or family member.

Abortion is legal in South Africa if you less than 3 months pregnant, but many young women have begun to treat abortion as some kind of contraceptive. This attitude reveals a terrible disrespect for life, and an unwillingness attitude to be responsible for their actions. There are circumstances – such as rape – when abortion is a justified response.

But if you have chosen to have sex, you have chosen the potential to create new life- because very sexual act has the potential to make a baby. The decision to end this life must be taken serious. If you don’t want to risk creating new life, use protection when you have sex – or abstain altogether.