The Ashanti Region recorded a total of 10,238 abortions in the first quarter of this year, a Ministry of Health report has shown. The number excludes the ones which were carried out without assistance from qualified medical practitioners.
The number in the first quarter alone far exceeded the 6,633 abortion cases recorded in 2007. The region, according to the report, also had 8,433 abortions last year, showing a continuum in annual increase of abortions.
The Executive Director of Edwards Initiative, a Non-Governmental Organisation, Edward Nana Obeng Kwakye, who revealed this to TODAY at an anti abortion awareness campaign in Kwamo, near Kumasi, described the situation as alarming and criticized the law that makes abortion legal under certain circumstances.
“Even when it was known to be an unsafe act and the perpetrators could be dealt with, according to law, look at the number of women who were involved and think about those who will do it with impunity now. We need to be serious as a nation”, the Executive Director said.
The Kwamo Township is part of seven areas in the Ashanti Region, where abortion has been on the increase in recent years. The other areas include Mamponteng, Suame, Asuoyeboah, Bremang, Sofoline and Asokwa. The exercise was the first phase of the group’s awareness creation in the abortion prone areas to assist residents and indigenes to gain some knowledge about the dangers involved in abortion.
The perpetrators of the act, Mr. Obeng Kwakye noted, were mainly youth in the mentioned areas, who either had very little knowledge or none at all about implications of abortion.
Mr Obeng Kwakye who was very emotional about the negative impact of the menace stressed that the nation lacked information about pregnancy, hence the resolve of some youth to abort their unwanted pregnancies whenever they occur.
“Ghana lacks information about pregnancy and abortion hence our initiative. Everybody is talking about malaria, HIV AIDS, hepatitis and the rest; it’s all good, but I think it’s about time we also talked about the negative impact of abortions”, he indicated.
Quoting section 58 of the Criminal Code of 1985, Mr Obeng Kwakye noted that the declaration of free or legalizing abortion in the country had contributed greatly to the increase of the practice.
“Is it not embarrassing that we call ourselves a Christian nation and yet indulge in acts which the Bible frowns upon?, the anti corruption crusader queried.
Mr Obeng Kwakye encouraged the youth to stay away from illicit sex which was the main cause of unwanted pregnancies and to also keep the pregnancies whenever they occurred, assuring them that his organization was ever ready to take in any pregnant woman who could not take care of herself till she was delivered of the baby.
He called on government to, as a matter of urgency, assist in the education of the general public about the dangers of abortion to the individual, and the nation as a whole. The absence of logistics, he noted, made the awareness creation difficult.
JAMES APPIAKORANG JNR., KWAMO.