YOU might have seen this message: "100% Safe, pain free arbotion. Results guaranteed."

This is a typical advertisement on the internet or on pamphlets pinned on street poles, trees and walls. While the advert seems to be offering pregnant women a safe option for terminating their pregnancies, it was this part that caught Sowetan's eye: "We do abortions Up to 40 weeks", and a cellphone number being given at the bottom.

According to the law, a woman has up to nine to 12 weeks to terminate a pregnancy safely, but further than that, they have to have surgical abortions that are conducted by qualified medical practitioners. So why were these pamphlets offering to have an abortion done using a magic pill up to 40 weeks?

While abortions are free and legal at government health facilities, many women are taking the illegal, back-door route, with dire results.

Sowetan spoke to Dr Elna McIntosh, who has in her profession assisted many young women with abortions. She said: "More and more young women are dying or are left with a lifetime of impairment and damage to their bodies caused by illegal abortions. It is scary, and completely unnecessary.

"The first warning sign is that these people claim to be doctors, but if one were to make contact with them, they would ask you to meet at a certain corner or behind a restaurant or something.

"Doctors do not operate like that. We have practice rooms with a physical address and a landline contact number. So, I would say any woman who chooses to respond to an advert like that must immediately know that they are opting for a high risk, illegal abortion."

McIntosh says that the appeal for most women is the anonymous, convenient and private service these illegal abortions offer, not to mention the seemingly cost effectiveness of it.

"These pills go for anything from R500 to R800, and offer you an immediate solution to their problem. There are some 'dealers' who can even offer to deliver the pills to your doorstep. Some people's fear of being spotted at an abortion clinic can also prompt them to seek the privacy of doing everything themselves at home," she says.

The risks that most women tend to ignore, McIntosh says, is that there are certain medical procedures and checks that these pills dealers are completely oblivious to, and passing them can put one's life in jeopardy.

She says medical practitioners look for various things when women come in to have a termination of pregnancy:

• Could it be a twin pregnancy?
• Has the woman had a C-section before (as women who've had a C-section are high risk candidates for an abortion);
• The woman's high blood pressure; and
• Various other medical checks which could determine if a person is eligible to have an abortion or not.

Abortion 'specialists' operate mobile surgeries

SOWETAN decided to go undercover and make contact with these "abortion specialists" we found online.

They can only be contacted by cellphones, not landlines. One "specialist" we spoke to identified himself as "Dr Henry", and said the pills would cost R700 for a 20-week pregnancy. "No problem at all," he said.

"At this stage it's still just blood, so the pills would make you bleed the foetus out. It will just be like going on your periods, and it will be done completely safe. No pain."

"Dr Henry" said we should meet at the Carlton Centre in the Johannesburg CBD. But then when we enquired about his practice number, he started swearing and hung up.

The most shocking revelation was a woman who identified herself as "Anna". When asked if she could again help a woman who had bought the pills from her but was still pregnant, "Anna" asked how many weeks the pregnancy was when the woman first consulted her.

We told her the pregnancy had been 20 weeks old during the first consultation.

"Don't worry mama," Anna assured. "Everything will be solved. And it's your fault, you should have called me earlier," she said, leaving one wondering how they would have known the pills hadn't worked.

"Okay, because you are now seven months pregnant, I will charge you R3500. The R500 is for pills to clean you up after the botched abortion, while R3000 will be for very strong pills that I'm going to give you.

"They will dissolve that baby, and it will come out as blood, just like a normal menstruation."

Anna offered to meet us at the Roodepoort CBD on the West Rand "by the taxi rank". She was very cagey about where she operated from. We never met.

Dr Elna McIntosh, who has in her profession assisted many young women with legal abortions, said the fact that these "specialists" were willing to give women abortion pills at such late stages of their pregnancy was alarming.

"Either the pills would not work and the baby is born with defects or the pills would induce premature labour," McIntosh said.

"What happens when you purchase these pills on the street and experience side effects like nausea, cramps and diarrhoea? Without a specific surgery or qualified professional to administer the two pills - Mifepristone and Cycotec - who would you hold accountable for the complications?

"Most of these dealers tend to sell one of the two pills to these women, and the fact is that both are needed for a successful termination. [It's like] jumping into a swimming pool without knowing its depth."

For more stories like this one, be sure to buy the Sowetan newspaper from Mondays to Fridays