Forum calls for education on abortion misconceptions
Speakers at a seminar to celebrate this year’s Global Day of Action for access to legal and safe abortion have called for public education and the clarification of misconceptions associated with termination of unwanted pregnancy.
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The speakers said maternal mortality could not be reduced without promoting safe and legal abortion in the country.
The speakers were Ms Naomi Wobunto and Ms Racheal Kanmwaa, who respectively are the Programme Officer and Programme Manager of Save-Ghana, a non-governmental organisation, and Mr Raphael Godlove Ahenu Jnr, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Global Media Foundation.
Liberal abortion law
Despite its liberal abortion law that permits abortion in cases of rape, incest or the “defilement of a female idiot”, if the life or health of the woman is in danger or if there is risk of foetal abnormality, unsafe abortion is a major public health problem in Ghana as access to safe, legal abortion in public health facilities is limited.
Ms Wobunto commended the government for its efforts to reduce maternal mortality through the free maternal policies, but expressed worry that a number of women were still dying on a daily basis and attributed the cause of most of these mortality rates among women to unsafe abortion.
She, therefore, called for improved access to information, medication and public awareness and acceptance of abortion to help reduce maternal mortality.
Family planning
Ms Kanmwaa, for her part, said considering the importance of family planning and the need for access to legal and safe abortion in Ghana, it was in the interest of all stakeholders to come together under one roof to create awareness and advocate for the use of the various family planning devices in Ghana.
She said abortion was still being carried out despite the restrictions posed by the law; therefore, an abortion restriction only made it unsafe.
In his remarks, Mr Ahenu said unsafe abortion was a major public health problem where abortion was restricted by laws which sought to prevent and punish that form of behaviour with the aim of preventing its occurrence and to deter people with like minds from indulging in such practice.
He said history, however, showed that abortion was a fundamental human behaviour that had been practised in all cultural settings and that no level of restrictive laws had thus succeeded in controlling it.
He said “when a woman decides to end an unwanted pregnancy, she will often go to extreme length to do so regardless of whether the procedure is safe or legal”.
Contraceptives
Mr Ahenu advocated that alongside access to safe abortion, contraceptives should be promoted and made available to all.
He said statistics from the Ghana Health Service indicated that while unsafe abortion was the second leading cause of maternal mortality in Ghana accounting for 15 per cent of maternal deaths, it also accounted for 25 to 30 per cent of maternal deaths in leading teaching hospitals in the country.
He, therefore, called on the clergy to ensure that parenting was put on the right footing in order not to jeopardise the future of today’s young people.
