FALSE: South Africa is not the only African country that has legalised abortion
This X (formerly Twitter) post claiming that South Africa is the only African country that has legalised abortion is FALSE. “Every white nation has legalized abortion, the only African nation is South Africa and it’s controlled by whites. Whites pushed abortion on black people,” the post states.
Abortion is legal in South Africa during the first three months of pregnancy. However, if a woman is between 13 and 20 weeks pregnant, the pregnancy may only be terminated under specific conditions. If she is more than 20 weeks pregnant, termination is permitted only if her life or the foetus' life is at risk, or if there is a high likelihood of serious birth defects.
A search on Google using keywords such as “African countries that legalise abortion” revealed that four African countries, namely South Africa, Cape Verde, Mozambique, and Tunisia, have legalised abortion (paragraph 53) without restriction as to reason and with gestational limits. Abortion has been legal in Cape Verde (paragraph 6) up to 12 weeks of pregnancy since 1986. After 12 weeks, abortion is permitted only if the pregnancy poses a risk to the woman's physical or mental health, or if there are fetal abnormalities.
Mozambique’s abortion law was liberalised in 2014, which allows legal abortions on request during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. The law also allows abortion up to 24 weeks in limited circumstances, including fetal abnormality. Since 1973, abortion has been legal in Tunisia during the first three months of pregnancy without any restrictions. After this period, it is permitted if the pregnancy poses a risk to the woman’s physical or mental health, or if the fetus has a severe abnormality. The status of abortion rights in African countries can be seen here and here. The source of the table below is this website.
African countries where abortion is legally prohibited in virtually all circumstances | African countries that permit abortion in certain cases, for example, if the woman’s life is at risk, and/or in cases of foetal abnormality or rape | African countries that permit access to abortion in additional circumstances, such as for mental and physical health reasons | African countries that allow abortions on request with few restrictions | |
1 | Congo-Brazzaville | Angola | Burkina Faso | Benin |
2 | Egypt | Algeria | Chad | Cape Verde |
3 | Gabon | Botswana | Ethiopia | Mozambique |
4 | Madagascar | Burundi | Equatorial Guinea | Rwanda |
5 | Mauritania | Cameroon | Ghana | South Africa |
6 | Senegal | The Central African Republic | Guinea Bissau | Zambia |
7 | Chad | Kenya | Tunisia | |
8 | Côte d’Ivoire | Mauritius | ||
9 | Democratic Republic of Congo | Namibia | ||
10 | Djibouti | São Tomé and Principe | ||
11 | Eritrea | Seychelles | ||
12 | Gambia | Zimbabwe | ||
13 | Guinea | |||
14 | Lesotho | |||
15 | Liberia | |||
16 | Libya | |||
17 | Malawi | |||
18 | Mali | |||
19 | Morocco | |||
20 | Niger | |||
21 | Nigeria | |||
22 | Sierra Leone | |||
23 | Somalia | |||
24 | South Sudan | |||
25 | Sudan | |||
26 | Swaziland | |||
27 | Tanzania | |||
28 | Togo | |||
29 | Uganda |
While some African countries have liberalised abortion laws, it remains banned in certain US states, and Malta maintains a near-total ban. This shows that support for abortion rights varies widely across countries, regardless of their identity, economic development or global standing.
PesaCheck has examined an X post claiming that South Africa is the only African country that has legalised abortion and found it to be FALSE.
This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.
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This fact-check was written by PesaCheck fact-checker Kiya Ali and edited by PesaCheck senior copy editor Mary Mutisya and chief copy editor Stephen Ndegwa.
The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck’s managing editor Doreen Wainainah.
PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water / sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org.
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