A total of 53,114 cases of abortion were recorded during 2017 only in the Government hospitals within the country, as reported by the Ghana Health Service (GHS). 25 million cases of abortion are recorded each year around the world, according to the report given by the World Health Organization (WHO)
The rage that exists among the medical doctors in the country is fused by the rising cases of teenage pregnancy, whiles 35% of pregnancies among married women are not planned.
According to a 2016 report, 110,000 adolescent girls in 352 basic schools across the country got pregnant that year.
For fear of deception, many of such teenagers rather engage in unsafe abortion methods that will then end in losing lives and also most of these victims wombs will end up destroyed.
It is on this same vein through which that, the Junior Doctors Association (JDA) together with with DKT International as part of activities marking the 60th anniversary of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) organized sensitization exercise on safe abortion and reproductive health for students of Pentecost Senior High School (PENSEC) in Koforidua, in the Eastern region.
Speaking to Starr News, which was being monitored by KYfilla.com, the Chairman of Junior Doctors Association, Dr Desmond Oppong said that “about 45% of abortion that women and adolescent girls go through in Ghana are unsafe and about 20% of sexually active non-married women do not use contraceptive.
“This figures are actually more because most of them don’t come to the hospital so that is why it is very prudent for us to go out there and educate them and let them know that the best method of preventing all these is abstinence but if that is not met then other means of contraception use also come into place.”
He therefore cautioned teenage girls who get pregnant to desist from taking in concoctions or going in for the services of quacks to end the pregnancy rather walk to accredited health facilities for professional abortion care service.
The General Secretary of the Junior Doctors Association, Dr Mawuena Hafeh, who spoke briefly on reproductive health advised the students to stay away from premarital sexual intercourse to prevent contracting sexually transmitted diseases.
The headmaster of Pentecost Senior High School, Peter Atta Gyamfi, said the health talk was timely adding, “of late we’ve been hearing cases of teenage pregnancies, unwanted pregnancies and abortions and we as a school thinks that it is timely.”
He added that “sometimes some of them even take drugs to terminate the pregnancies which end up in complications. Some of them are very innocent and therefore they can just be lured by their peers so with this education they will abstain from sex.”
