Abstract
M.Ed.
New legislation on the termination of pregnancy (Number 92 of 1996) was approved by
President Nelson Mandela on 12 November 1996, and came into effect on 1 February
1997. This law allows any pregnant woman above the age of 12, thus including adolescents, to decide to have her pregnancy terminated. Furthermore, the adolescents do not need parental permission to have their pregnancies terminated.
The adolescent can thus be left on her own to make this very important decision.
The question arising from this is the following: How does the adolescent experience the
counselling before she had an abortion and what are her needs regarding this counselling.
To explore and describe the feelings of these daughters, a qualitative, explorative,
descriptive and contextual research system was conducted in two phases.
During Phase 1 in depth phenomenological interviews were conducted. During Phase
I! logical inference was used to generate guidelines for educational psychologists to
enable them to assist and guide these daughters who want to terminate their
pregnancies.
The research showed that the following theme was observed recurringly:
The process of counselling before the termination of pregnancy is being
perceived as inadequate.
By using the technique of secondary analysis of data, the following needs were
identified:
The need to address tension, anxiety and fear.
The need for constructive mechanisms to protect themselves.
The need to address inner conflict caused by the decision to end the pregnancy.
The need to address sadness and feelings of grief.
The guidelines that have been set, are as follows:
Guidelines to address tension, anxiety and fear.
Guidelines to develop constructive mechanisms to protect themselves.
Guidelines to address inner conflict.
Guidelines to handle feelings of sadness and grief.