Miss Esther Munufie, Chairperson of the Youth Advisory Board of the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG), on Thursday cautioned women and girls against over-reliance on family planning methods as they can fail.
She emphasized that family planning could fail as a method to guard against unwanted pregnancies and advised girls to abstain from pre-marital sexual practices.
Speaking at a public forum on unsafe abortion in Sunyani on Thursday, Ms Munufie advised girls, who could not control their sexual desires to avoid unprotected sex by demanding their partners use condoms.
It was organized by Global Media Foundation (GLOMEF), a human rights and media advocacy non-governmental organization, and attended by queen mothers, assembly members, civil society organizations and media practitioners.
Ms Munufie, a Tutor at the Ntotroso Nurses Training College, expressed concern about unsafe abortion, which was increasing among girls with many of them applying local herbs and other concoctions that could lead to various health complications.
She said abortion is legal, explaining that special units had been set up at various public and other private health facilities where unwanted pregnancies could be terminated at a fee.
Mr Raphael Godlove Ahenu, Chief Executive Officer of GLOMEF, noted that the extremely high number of young women who continued to resort to unsafe abortion makes it critical to ensure that young women easily access safe abortion and family planning services.
He said adolescent girls in developing countries underwent at least 2.2 million to 4 million unsafe abortions each year (World Health Organisation report 2007).
He said in sub-Saharan Africa, over 60 per cent of unsafe abortions are among women younger than 25 years (Greene et al report 2010).
