Sick, stick abortion

Two ladies who pleaded guilty to procuring an abortion recently narrowly escaped jail after Francistown Magistrate Dumisani Basupi gave them a suspended four-year sentence for the heinous crime.

The two, Pearl David (20) and her partner in crime Boitumelo Basana (31) were convicted on 18 January 2017. Basana, an ‘amateur’ backdoor abortionist, by the magistrate’s estimation, had charged P200 to terminate David’s five-month old pregnancy.

Before sentencing the two culprits, Magistrate Basupi gave a graphic account of the sordid act. He said Basana told David to lie down on her back and inserted a stick in her vagina and told her not to remove it until she saw blood coming out. David told the backdoor abortionist that she felt some pains after some time on that fateful day but the abortionist advised her not to remove the stick. Basupi said the following day David was in more pain, and when blood began to ooze out through the vagina, she sat on a bucket “until the baby came out attached to the umbilical cord”.

“When Basana said that David should not remove the stick she wanted to make sure that the baby does not escape death,” Basupi said, adding that similarly when David opened her legs for the operation, her goal was the same as that of the abortionist – to kill the baby. The magistrate’s concern was with his conviction that it was not the first time that Basana had inserted a stick in someone’s womb.

“I am saying this because no evidence was produced that Pearl (David) sustained any injuries,” the magistrate said. This, he said, could suggest that there are many other healthy-looking women out in the streets who have gone through the stick abortion. In his sentencing, he considered the fact that both accused persons had pleaded guilty and shown remorse. “They are also first offenders. Further, in their mitigation, David told the court that she is taking care of her lucky four-year-old,” the magistrate said.

“I am saying the lucky because at the time of her pregnancy Basana and her stick were not there,” Basupi explained. He said in pleading for leniency, the 31-year old abortionist had also told court of the lessons learnt in her crime, among which is realizing that that crime does not pay as shown by the meager amount she charged for such a heinous crime..

He said: “It should be noted that the amount charged was P200. It shows that she is an amateur in the job as professionals, charge P1000.” Basupi then sentenced each accused to four years in prison wholly suspended on condition they don’t commit a similar offence in five years. They were fined P500 payable within seven days, failing which they would serve a 12-months’ prison term.