Increase access to safe abortion
A healthcare-related non-governmental organisation is advocating a repeal of Ghana’s law on abortion to make abortion procedure more accessible on demand at hospitals and clinics.
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Currently, abortion is only permitted on grounds of pregnancy being caused by rape or incest or that it endangers the life of the mother, but SAVE-Ghana – which has pushed for access to safe abortion – insists that making it accessible on demand will reduce maternal deaths and related incidences.
It said the Millennium Development Goals on maternal and child mortality could prove elusive to the country when unsafe abortion alone currently accounts for 11 per cent of maternal deaths in Ghana.
Kingsley Kanton, executive director of SAVE-Ghana, said every effort should be made to secure women against unsafe abortion since it carries dire implications for both the women and the society.
He made the remarks during a civil society health forum in Wa where SAVE-Ghana donated eight manual vacuum aspirators – a medical equipment used during abortion procedures – to the Ghana Health Service for distribution to eight health centres in the Upper West Region.
“Access to safe and legal abortion is not just a healthcare issue; it is a human right issue,” he said, pointing to the South Africa example where women can access abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy.
“Maternal mortality is still around 300 per every 100,000 live births,” he said, quoting World Health Organisation figures, and pointed to projections by experts that “there will be 126,000 abortions in Ghana in 2014 and that the majority of those (abortions) will be unsafe procedures done outside of registered clinics and hospitals.”
Maternal health policy
He said abortion should be integrated into the free maternal health policy to make it accessible to women on demand, explaining that the financial cost of accessing abortion services was a major hindrance to safe abortion.
“Because of the cost of abortion services, it takes months for women needing such services to find the resources. By the time they find the money, the pregnancy may have matured, and they would have to find extra resources to cater for the matured pregnancy.
“This is why most of the women seek alternatives which turn out to be unsafe and thereby endanger their lives,” he said.
Scary statistics
Mr Kanton said women are critical to health and development worldwide in that “a woman’s death increases her children’s risk of death 10 times, taking into consideration the fact that women produce 80 per cent of Africa’s food and form 70 per cent of the labour force, while women run the majority of busineses and farms in developing countries.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that 42 million women are faced with unplanned pregnancies yearly. Out of this figure, the world body says 20 million women have unsafe abortion yearly, mostly in countries where abortion is illegal.
According to the WHO, whereas 92 per cent of abortions in developed countries are safe, 97 per cent of abortions in developing countries are unsafe.
“There is no shame in having abortion; the only shame is in bringing an unwanted child into the world,” the women’s health advocate said. “Safe and legal abortion will guarantee every girl and woman their right to choose what is best at anytime that matches their situation and place in their lives.”