The views of Pentecostal pastors in the Border regions of the Eastern Cape with regard to choices on termination of pregnancies: A practical theological study.
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Date
2015
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University of Fort Hare
Abstract
The focus of this study is on the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act 1996 (Act No. 92 of 1996), which states the circumstances and the conditions under which pregnancy may be terminated, amongst others, upon request of a woman during the first twelve weeks of the gestation period of her pregnancy.
The study is motivated by the researcher’s personal experiences with people and circumstances surrounding the termination of pregnancy. The researcher had an opportunity to raise, at God’s command, a new born baby due to failed termination of pregnancy while she was working as a professional nurse at the Bedford Gardens Private Hospital in the Gauteng Province.
The allegations were that the woman attempted to terminate the pregnancy at 24 weeks of pregnancy, but the baby came out alive, and the woman threw the baby into the rubbish bin hoping the baby would die there. The baby was allegedly picked up from the rubbish bin and rushed to the Johannesburg General Hospital where it was discovered he was a gross pre-mature neonate, approximately 24 week gestational period.
On examination, the baby was found to be HIV positive and had Cerebral Palsy. He was kept in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of this provincial hospital until he was able to breathe properly on his own. He was later transferred to the hospice for HIV/AIDS and abandoned babies situated in Rosettenville, South of Johannesburg in August 2000. That is where the researcher met the baby whilst she was offering voluntary services during her off days.
Coincidentally, the day that the researcher started doing voluntary work at the hospice, is the same day that the baby was transferred in from the hospital. The researcher was so shocked and disgusted that the baby was so tiny and looked like a kitten, wrapped in swaddling blankets. She actually verbalized out of frustration that “the baby should have been left there to die on his own; people expect too much from God if they think this baby is going to make it.” Little did the researcher know that within a few months of bonding with the baby in the hospice, God would command her to “take this child, raise him and give him a new name.”
The researcher was so shocked at this command that she refused bluntly to obey it; because at the time, the mere mention of the word HIV/AIDS was enough to scare one to death, including the stigma that it carried. The researcher’s colleagues were already questioning the move to offer voluntary services at the HIV/AIDS hospice instead of just an ordinary orphanage.
However, after much wrestling with God, the researcher eventually obeyed, for she thought; God would not command her to take the baby from the hospice just for the researcher to bury the baby at her home. Somehow the researcher knew that God had something else in mind about this baby, a bigger and a better plan and purpose even though she did not know at the time what it was.
That was enough motivation and enough courage for the researcher to adopt the baby in the midst of discouragement and harassment, despite being scared to do it. Moreover, the researcher also thought, if the baby could survive the surgery of termination of pregnancy and still survives the cold in the rubbish bin as a premature baby, he could survive anything.
However, things got even worse when the whole family turned against the researcher, rejecting the baby in the strongest possible terms, even threatening to disown the researcher because the claims were that the baby was going to infect everyone in the family, especially their children. In addition, they also feared that everyone in the family was going to die of HIV/AIDS because of this baby. By that time, God had done an enormous amount of work in the researcher’s life. As a result, the researcher boldly told the family that “If this child represents God in her own life, she would rather stick with the baby and the family can disown her.”
After eighteen months of intense suffering from family rejection and strife, the baby was miraculously healed from both HIV/AIDS and Cerebral Palsy without taking any medication. Interestingly, to everyone’s surprise and shock, including the researcher, the baby started walking and talking when he was eighteen months old. He is now a fourteen year old tall and healthy boy; a keyboard player, an athlete (a sprinter) and a soccer player, to God only be the glory. Everyone in the family loves him now, and his testimony has brought everyone in the family to the knowledge and acceptance of Jesus Christ as the Lord and Saviour.