Apartheid and Health Professional Accountability: Violations of the Reproductive Rights of Women

Abstract

Examining the work of scientists and health professionals during colonial and apartheid South Africa reveals complex interconnections between science, gender, “race,”¹ and nation-building. We explore the complicity of health professionals in the abuse of the reproductive rights of South African women through participation in a system that constructed women primarily as reproductive bodies and manipulated their reproduction for oppressive political purposes. If a culture of respect for human rights is to supplant one of complicity with abuse, this history must first be acknowledged, accountability accepted, and systematic mechanisms put in place to address training, monitoring for human rights abuses and transformation in institutions and organizations. While challenging and perhaps time-consuming to tackle issues of the past, it is imperative to undertake such critical self-study so that current attempts to transform health services in post-apartheid South Africa will be successful.