More than 350 000 pregnancies have been terminated since the implementation of the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act eight years ago.
According to the Medical Research Council, since the introduction of the Act, more than 45 000 legal abortions have been performed annually in South Africa at state hospitals and private facilities.
Introduced on February 1, 1997, the Act allows women of any age or marital status the right to legally access abortion services.
Women are able to request abortions during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and, in some cases, the first 20 weeks.
Abortions after the 20th week are permissible only if a woman's health is threatened or if her pregnancy will result in a severe handicap to the foetus.
The measure repealed the restrictive 1975 Abortion and Sterilisation Act, which required the approval of two doctors and, in some instances, a magistrate before an abortion could legally be performed.
Before the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act was implemented, abortions were performed only when pregnancy threatened a woman's mental and physical health, was the result of incest or rape (which needed to be proved) or other unlawful intercourse.
The 1975 laws were described as a failure as a health policy, with an estimated 250 000 illegal abortions performed annually between 1975 and 1996, as opposed to about 1 000 legal operations.
In 1993, the Medical Research Council initiated a study into the maternal mortality and morbidity resulting from unsafe abortions.
The council estimated that 45 000 women were admitted to state hospitals in 1994 for spontaneous abortions or for complications caused by induced abortions.
The total cost of treating incomplete abortions during 1994 was estimated to be R18,7-million.
The Medical Research Council study estimated in 1994 that 400 women died each year as a result of abortion-related complications.
A study by the department of health found that abortion-related maternal deaths had fallen to only nine in 1997.