Students schooled on unsafe abortion

The chairperson of the Koforidua Branch of Youth Action Movement (YAM), Ms Evelyn Sosu has advised students to avoid taking emergency contraceptives more than twice in a year since frequent intake could be dangerous to their health.

She said, research indicate that many young sexually active ladies are having many emergency contraceptives in their bags and take them any time they had sex to protect themselves against pregnancy.

Ms Sosu said often, ladies who did that had more than one sexual partner, but the use of the emergency contraceptives more than twice in a year was an abuse of the drug which she explained could lead to some reproductive health challenges in future.

Ms Sosu was speaking at a sensitization programme organized by the Youth Alert Network (YAN), a non-governmental organization in collaboration with the Koforidua branch of YAM, the youth wing of the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG), a leading non-governmental organization in reproductive health. The sensitisation programme on unsafe abortion and its effects was organised for students of Social Welfare Vocational Training Center in Koforidua. She encouraged the students to learn more about reproductive health and how to maintain a healthy relationship to help them avoid unwanted pregnancies as well as sexually transmitted infections. Ms Sosu said research shows that about 12 per cent of recorded maternal deaths in Ghana were caused by unsafe abortion and majority of the victims are women below 30 years.

The chairperson thanked the management of the school for the opportunity given them to interact with the students on their sexual health. She said YAM will utilize several strategies including focus group discussions, social media campaigns to reach out to the youth with valuable information on their reproductive health.

Ms Sosu called on the youth to join YAM to acquire the skills and knowledge on sexual, reproductive health and rights (SRH&R) to be able to mentor and coach other young people.