Ms Joyce Aku Lamptey, Secretary of the Students Representative Council (SRC) of the Presbyterian Midwifery Training School in the Dormaa Municipality, at the weekend said family planning services ought to be accessible to young adults.
She noted that many adolescent girls could not abstain from sexual intercourse and the only way to guide them against unwanted pregnancies is to ensure that they readily get family planning and other sexual reproductive health services in communities.
Ms Lamptey was speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview after the SRC organized a debate on comprehensive abortion services as part of the council’s one-week anniversary celebration on the theme “every mother and child count” at Dromaa-Ahenkro.
She observed that teenage pregnancy and unsafe abortion had ruined the lives and killing many girls adding that according to statistics unsafe abortion alone contributed to about 15 percent of maternal deaths in the country.
Ms Lamptey explained that Ghana could make a headway in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs four and five) if women and girls are encouraged to opt for family planning services which also capture comprehensive abortion methods.
She noted that teenage pregnancy and unsafe abortion is assuming alarming proportion especially in the Dormaa Municipality and stressed the need to create avenues where young girls could go and access sex education without shyness.
Ms Lamptey expressed regret that efforts being made to promote family planning services are sometimes thwarted by misconceptions and myths some churches and other religious institutions had on sexual reproductive health care services.
Mr Raphael Godlove Ahenu, Chief Executive Officer of Global Media Foundation (GLOMEF), a human right Non-Governmental Organisation noted that though the Bible is against fornication, pregnant girls ought to be provided another chance to live.
He observed that many pregnant girls opted for unsafe abortion because it is not easy for them to access comprehensive abortion. Mr Ahenu explained it is because of this and a number of reasons that GLOMEF with support from Safe Abortion Fund is implementing a three year project to promote safe abortion in the Brong-Ahafo Region.
Mr Ahenu said under the project, girls clubs would be established in Senior High Schools in urban and rural communities while the NGO would assist willing pregnant girls to access safe abortion services.
