Abortion, neglected tragedy
An overwhelming number of young girls and women are having abortions. Currently, girls as young as eight are indulging in active sex leading to pregnancies, some of which end up being unsafely aborted.
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Disturbing data on unsafe abortions presented at a sensitisation workshop organised by Ipas Ghana for the Media Action Team for Reproductive Health (MAT-RH) revealed that abortion-related maternal mortality is one of the biggest neglected tragedies in the country.
Unsafe abortion is defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a procedure for terminating an unwanted pregnancy either by persons lacking the necessary skills or in an environment lacking minimal medical standards.
According to the Adolescent Health and Development Programme Report of the Ministry of Health, 16,182 girls went through unsafe abortion in 2011, 10,785 in 2010 and 8,717 in 2009.
Currently, unsafe abortion accounted for 15 per cent of maternal deaths in Ghana, impeding the country’s efforts at achieving the Millennium Development Goals four and five, which are primarily aimed at reducing maternal mortality by 75 per cent by 2015.
According to statistics, 85 million unintended pregnancies occurred in the developing countries. Out of this figure, as much as 40 million ended in abortions.
The abortion rate puts Africa in the lead with 97 per cent, Latin America 95, Asia 40, Eastern Europe 13 per cent respectively. Interestingly, the rate of safe abortions in the developed countries is 100 per cent with a poky per cent for Africa.
The consequences of unsafe abortion further indicated 47,000 related deaths, 5 million women with disabilities with 220,000 children becoming motherless.
The data further show that maternal mortality from unsafe abortions is higher in countries with major restrictions to abortion and areas with strong stigma.
Meanwhile, the figures are lower in countries where abortion is available upon request or under broad conditions.
According to the Country Director for Ipas Ghana, Dr Koma Jehu-Appiah, Ghana’s abortion law is considered relatively liberal, as inaccessibility to safe services, coupled with some outmoded traditional values, social perception and religious teachings, had created the situation where quacks and charlatan doctors, carried out majority of the abortions in clandestine and dangerous ways.
Dr Jehu-Appiah said although abortion was legal in Ghana, only few Ghanaian women were aware of this, and as a result, abortions were crudely and widely carried out, making it one of the major causes of maternal deaths in the country.
The Ipas Director strongly believes that the situation can change positively if media practitioners dedicate some amount of time, space and create a platform to educate and inform the public on how to opt for safe abortion.