A feminist anthropology of barriers to implementing the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act (CTOP)

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dc.contributor.advisorSalo, Elaineen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorCox, Phyllidaen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2014-12-27T19:44:17Z
dc.date.available2014-12-27T19:44:17Z
dc.date.issued2007en_ZA
dc.descriptionIncludes bibliographical references.en_ZA
dc.description.abstractThis study aims to assess barriers within communities and at the community healthcare level that impede delivery of reproductive healthcare rights- in particular it focuses on the South African Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act (CTOP), which came into effect in 1996. In their scoping study of abortion related research in South Africa Varkey and Fonn state that whilst there have been several studies on the barriers to implementing the CTOP Act at the health service level, few have addressed community barriers (2000). I conducted multi-sited fieldwork between two townships in Cape Town, South Africa on the urban periphery of Cape Town, South Africa. The inhabitants of these two communities are black Xhosa speaking South Africans who live in a mix of informal shack, government built as well as self- built housing. The marginal location of these communities in relation the Eurocentric metropolitan centre of Cape Town reflects the legacy of the racialised reordering of the Apartheid era. The socio-economic effects of this legacy are tangibly present in the poverty, criminality and gender based violence that impacts upon the health of these communities. I focused on reproductive health care services for these townships at the community based service delivery level. Although Varkey and Fonn (ibid) distinguish between studies that address health care and studies that address community barriers to healthcare I aim to show how the distinction between the spaces of the community as against the institutional space of public healthcare is somewhat arbitrary. Because this study focuses on the cultural politics of implementing the legislation on abortion, the issues that arise and are analysed encompass seemingly divergent levels and social fields of inter-relationality. These social fields of inter-relationality include in their scope law, policy, rights-based public health care implementation, domestic households and gendered relationships between men and, women;- mothers and daughters, nurses and young women and so on. How such intersecting and interpenetrating levels play out in the lives of individuals can be illustrated most effectively through the anthropological notion of "personhood" as it regulates and informs communal and individual notions of self in the public health care space. For example, as agents in community based health service delivery Nurses embody a personhood in the context of their professional role, which is inseparable from their identity as gendered persons with distinctive ethnic and racial identities within South African communities. These gendered, racial and ethnic identities are embedded in histories of Colonial and Apartheid State planning. A consistent theme in this paper are how these identities influence moral constructions of sexuality and the ambiguities that nurses feel about the women to whom they provide family planning in relation to their own values around appropriate female personhood.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationCox, P. (2007). <i>A feminist anthropology of barriers to implementing the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act (CTOP)</i>. (Thesis). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of Sociology. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10282en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationCox, Phyllida. <i>"A feminist anthropology of barriers to implementing the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act (CTOP)."</i> Thesis., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of Sociology, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10282en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationCox, P. 2007. A feminist anthropology of barriers to implementing the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act (CTOP). University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Cox, Phyllida AB - This study aims to assess barriers within communities and at the community healthcare level that impede delivery of reproductive healthcare rights- in particular it focuses on the South African Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act (CTOP), which came into effect in 1996. In their scoping study of abortion related research in South Africa Varkey and Fonn state that whilst there have been several studies on the barriers to implementing the CTOP Act at the health service level, few have addressed community barriers (2000). I conducted multi-sited fieldwork between two townships in Cape Town, South Africa on the urban periphery of Cape Town, South Africa. The inhabitants of these two communities are black Xhosa speaking South Africans who live in a mix of informal shack, government built as well as self- built housing. The marginal location of these communities in relation the Eurocentric metropolitan centre of Cape Town reflects the legacy of the racialised reordering of the Apartheid era. The socio-economic effects of this legacy are tangibly present in the poverty, criminality and gender based violence that impacts upon the health of these communities. I focused on reproductive health care services for these townships at the community based service delivery level. Although Varkey and Fonn (ibid) distinguish between studies that address health care and studies that address community barriers to healthcare I aim to show how the distinction between the spaces of the community as against the institutional space of public healthcare is somewhat arbitrary. Because this study focuses on the cultural politics of implementing the legislation on abortion, the issues that arise and are analysed encompass seemingly divergent levels and social fields of inter-relationality. These social fields of inter-relationality include in their scope law, policy, rights-based public health care implementation, domestic households and gendered relationships between men and, women;- mothers and daughters, nurses and young women and so on. How such intersecting and interpenetrating levels play out in the lives of individuals can be illustrated most effectively through the anthropological notion of "personhood" as it regulates and informs communal and individual notions of self in the public health care space. For example, as agents in community based health service delivery Nurses embody a personhood in the context of their professional role, which is inseparable from their identity as gendered persons with distinctive ethnic and racial identities within South African communities. These gendered, racial and ethnic identities are embedded in histories of Colonial and Apartheid State planning. A consistent theme in this paper are how these identities influence moral constructions of sexuality and the ambiguities that nurses feel about the women to whom they provide family planning in relation to their own values around appropriate female personhood. DA - 2007 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2007 T1 - A feminist anthropology of barriers to implementing the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act (CTOP) TI - A feminist anthropology of barriers to implementing the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act (CTOP) UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10282 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/10282
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationCox P. A feminist anthropology of barriers to implementing the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act (CTOP). [Thesis]. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of Sociology, 2007 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10282en_ZA
dc.language.isoengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of Sociologyen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subject.otherSociologyen_ZA
dc.titleA feminist anthropology of barriers to implementing the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act (CTOP)en_ZA
dc.typeMaster Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelMasters
dc.type.qualificationnameMSocScen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceThesisen_ZA
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