On 15 May 2019, the news site Modern Ghana reported that rates of unsafe abortion and illegal abortion deaths were high among teenagers at Doryumu, a deprived community in the Shai-Osudoku District of the Greater Accra Region. In the absence of access to safe abortion care, teens are thought to be resorting to unorthodox means to terminate unwanted pregnancies.
Residents of the area have reportedly expressed worry over the issue, calling for the arrest of local drug dealers to put an end to the situation. They claim that unlicensed Chinese medicines and other concoctions for terminating pregnancy are being hawked in the streets of the local community. This emerged on Mother’s Day this month during local health screening exercises for over 400 women, and another for the community, organised by the Naa Teley Foundation, a non-profit organisation in the area, founded in 2019.
Their mission is to provide health outreach, advocacy and medical education to deprived communities, and mentorship programmes to youth in these areas. Dr Bernice Borteley Bornnai, Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation, called for the intensification of sex education and education on contraceptive methods which can help young people to prevent unwanted pregnancies. The Foundation has embarked on post-abortion family planning counselling services in the Doryumu community as part of wider efforts to meet the Sustainable Development Goals.
SOURCE: Modern Ghana 15 May 2019 ; Awake News [+photo], by Efo Korsi Senyo, 13 May 2019