Ipas partners Ghana Health Service ; To address unsafe abortion
Ipas Ghana, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), committed to promoting sexual and reproductive health status and rights of women and the youth, is working in partnership with the Ghana Health Service (GHS), to reduce deaths of women in the country due to unsafe abortion, especially in the three regions in the north.
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This is being done by increasing availability and awareness of reproductive health services so that the marginalised and young women are able to access family planning services,and prevent unsafe abortion.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic in Wa on the sidelines of a Regional Annual Health Performance Review Conference, Madam Benedicta Awo Melomey, a Health Systems Advisor at Ipas Ghana, said since last year, they had educated staff in 10 public health facilities in the three northern regions and renovated and provided equipment for the service providing facilities. They had also sensitised the communities and health personnel to the provision of comprehensive abortion care.
Refurbished health facilities
The refurbished facilities included the Tamale West, Tamale Central, Salaga and Yendi hospitals in the Northern Region, and the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital, Navrongo and Tongo district hospitals in the Upper East Region. The rest are the Wa, Lawra and Tumu hospitals in the Upper West Region. Ten more facilities, she said, would be added this year.
This is against the background of records of deaths due to unsafe abortions in the three regions. In 2014, for instance, out of 31 maternal deaths recorded in the Upper West Region, four were due to unsafe abortions.
Madam Melomey said they had also trained peer educators and community nurses to educate and refer community members in need of services such as safe abortions to the public health facilities.
“We need to stop marginalising young women in need of comprehensive abortion care to stop them from dying needlessly. Let us give the appropriate sexual education to our children and also make comprehensive abortion care services an integral part of our sexual and reproductive health service in our health facilities,” she stated.
She also cited stigma, religious censorship, cultural and traditional beliefs and attitudes of healthcare providers as some of the factors that prevented women from seeking safe abortion services.
