Unsafe Abortions On The Ascendency � NGO Launches $127,000 To Address Problem

According to the Adolescent Heath and Development Programme 2011 Report by the Ministry of Health, unsafe abortion accounts for 25 to 30 percent of maternal deaths in leading teaching hospitals in the country. This alarming rate of unsafe abortion impedes the country�s efforts at achieving Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5, which is primarily aimed at reducing maternal mortality by 75percent by 2015. Whilst Ghana�s abortion law is considered relatively liberal, inaccessibility to safe services coupled with traditional values, social perceptions and religious teachings, has created a situation whereby quacks and charlatan doctors carried out the majority of the abortions in clandestine and dangerous ways. In 2006 the law was successfully revised and despite the fairly liberal new law in Ghana, unsafe abortion remains the second most common cause of maternal mortality accounting for 11% of Maternal deaths in the country. To support the efforts of achieving the MDG 5, Global Media Foundation (GLOMEF) with support from International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) under Safe Abortion Fund (SAF) has commenced a project titled: Advocating for Young Women Access to Safe Abortion and contraceptive Services in Ghana. Chief Executive Officer of GLOMEF, Mr. Godlove Raphael Ahenu said the three (3) year project which starts from April, 2014, to March 2017, would be implemented in 21 communities and 14 Junior and Senior High Schools in the seven Municipal and Districts in Brong-Ahafo, with Sunyani Municipality, Kintampo North Municipality, Techiman Municipality, Wenchi Municipality, Dormaa Central Municipality, Jaman South District and Tano North District as the beneficiaries. At a press briefing held in Sunyani, Mr. Ahenu disclosed that the project, costing $127, 749. 31 seeks to increase awareness among young people both in and out of school and advocate for access to safe abortion and contraceptive services through the media in the Brong-Ahafo Region. He continued that the project objectives are to increase access to safe abortion related services through information dissemination and strengthened referral linkages with government hospitals and other service providers for 500 young women in the region by 2016. Also the project aims at increasing commitment of opinion leaders in Brong-Ahafo by having 75 opinion leaders signing-up as Safe abortion Advocates by the end of the project, and increase positive media coverage on safe abortion through the formation of Brong-Ahafo Reproductive Health Reporters Network by 2016.