APA-Johannesburg (South Africa) South African clinics are allegedly denying pregnant immigrants prenatal care, APA learnt on Wednesday.
According press reports, the women from South Africa’s neighbours said they had been refused health care at clinics in parts of Johannesburg because they were undocumented immigrants.
Some of the affected women said they are being turned away from clinics, with the nurses telling them they could not be served because “our people (South Africans) no longer have enough medical resources.”
The latest development is in defiance of a Gauteng High Court ruling in April that pregnant women and children under six-years-old should have access to free public health services irrespective of nationality and documentation status.
This followed an application brought to it by SECTION27 civil organisation alongside women who had been denied access to the health facilities.
The court declared unlawful regulations introduced by the Gauteng Department of Health in 2020 that denied free health care services to asylum seeking and undocumented pregnant, breastfeeding women and young children.
Notwithstanding the court order, pregnant immigrant women from countries like Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Lesotho, Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo are struggling to register for prenatal care, the reports said.
NM/jn/APA