Negotiating values in abortion counselling
Institution: | University of South Africa |
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Department: | |
Year: | 0 |
Keywords: | Narrative pastoral counselling; Values; Abortion; Pro-life; Pro-choice; Discourses |
Record ID: | 1473851 |
Full text PDF: | http://hdl.handle.net/10500/1121 |
The introduction of abortion legalisation in South Africa during 1997 gave rise to the need for pre- and post-abortion counselling. Two dominant counselling groups came to the fore namely pro-choice and pro-life, reflecting the respective stances of society on abortion. In order to answer the following research questions: "What value-challenges do abortion counsellors experience, if any?" and "What ways have they found in negotiating these challenges?" A narrative conversation was used to come to an understanding of these research questions in practice. Research was undertaken with counsellors from both pro-life and pro-choice stances. The influence of capitalism, patriarchy and religion on role players confronted with making decisions on abortion was explored. Pro-choice counsellors negotiated their values in terms of forgiveness based on the unconditional forgiveness they would expect from God and pro-life counsellors in terms of God's forgiveness for the client, accepting her own responsibility for the consequences of the abortion.