The ACDP has requested the tabling of a Private Member\'s Bill, Choice on Termination of Pregnancy (CTOP) Amendment Act, 2010, to amend facilities and services provided at places where termination of pregnancy is permitted.

ACDP MP, Cheryllyn Dudley today said that,"The bill provides for comprehensive counselling, which includes discussion of both the extent of the risks involved in continuing the pregnancy and the risks involved in terminating the pregnancy, the risk of breast cancer, depression, future difficulties in conceiving and bearing children and available alternatives to abortion including adoption and state or other support that is available, to enable a mother to give fully informed consent for any termination of her pregnancy.

This bill will also enable access and viewing of ultrasound technology which accurately determines the gestation period prior to termination of pregnancy and provides for important information on the development of the unborn child.

Modern medical science has made enormous strides forward since the CTOP Act was passed and it is now accepted that the unborn child is viable at 20 weeks gestation and that congenital deformities can more readily be corrected by surgery before or after birth.

Genuine informed consent which section 5 of the Principle Act makes a prerequisite to every termination is seldom obtained, as insufficient information is made available to the mother.  The proposed amendment will protect the rights of women and children and ensure the State and private health care operators are protected from legal action for damages alleging failure to obtain informed consent as a result of inadequate counselling.

In a suit currently before the Western Cape High Court (Zeenat Pillay vs. Marie Stopes Clinic) the Plaintiff alleges that she was not provided with the counselling necessary to give her informed consent, and that she was not informed of the stage of development of her unborn child."