Abstract
M.Ed.
After the legalization of abortions (Number 92 of 1996), the question that arose was: How
does the adolescent girl experience the abortion she underwent? This question is also seen
against the background of the adolescent's developmental phase and development tasks.
To ascertain the adolescent girls' experience I made use of a research design that is qualitative,
explorative, descriptive and contextual of nature. This research took place in two phases:
In Phase one, in depth phenomenological interviews were conducted. In Phase two, I made
use of logical inference to generate guidelines for educational psycologists and healthworkers
who were to counsel the girls who had undergone abortions. The experiences of the adolescent girls can be divided into three dimensions, namely the physical, psychological and spiritual dimension. The guidelines that were set, are as follow: Giving of information before, during and after the abortion; Counseling for lifeskills, namely decision making, management of conflict situasions and the verbalisation of emotions; Counseling adolescent girls to develop a more positive self-image and the handling of feelings of guilt.