I want to congratulate them very much on their conduct and for the manner in which they participated in this process.
The sad part was the spoonfeeding by hon Cheryl Dudley. Every time she asked a question, she actually told the participants what to say, which is quite sad. I'm sure that, as a leader of a party, she should, at some point, do some introspection with regard to her conduct around these particular issues.
Therefore, the substance here is about the amendments that were there. One of the things that must be commended about this Bill is the fact that it has opened access for women. It has dramatically reduced maternal deaths since its introduction.
Equally, it has allowed women their right to reproductive health, and that is the crux of the issue. All your philosophical, ideological and religious beliefs should be subservient to the rights of women in terms of their access to reproductive health. As I have indicated earlier, that is the crux of the matter. Let's not introduce things that are actually ancillary to specific interests of this particular piece of legislation.
In particular, we would like to thank the people who took the time to make their submissions. There are a lot of people who we, as the ANC, would like to congratulate on the manner in which they made their submissions. We are satisfied that the process was thorough, efficient, and, from our side, I think the diligence and patience on the part of the Members of Parliament was something salutary.
Any other issue outside of this piece of legislation should remain there, because the question of conscientious objection, counselling and all those things are covered by a number of pieces of legislation. If you look at your National Health Act, it covers them.
If you look into the question of counselling, you'll see that it is covered in the Principal Act: "There shall be nonmandatory, nondirective counselling." It's there. Why do people want to include things that are actually their own philosophical, subjective interests in the piece of legislation in order to drive the point home that there must be counselling?
At some point some of us here who hold some of these quasi-religious beliefs must begin to look at ourselves and ask the question: What is the interest of women in all of this? Thank you. [Time expired.]