Nurse Wants Abortion Legalized

A Public Health Nurse at the Sunyani Municipal Health Directorate, Mrs. Sarah Adjapong, has advocated the legalization of abortion in the country. That, she said, would reduce the incidence of pregnant girls patronizing quack doctors and taking concoctions in their attempt to abort pregnancies. She said to avoid being stigmatized, many young girls adopted all sorts of methods to abort developing foetus, and in the process lost their lives. Mrs. Adjapong was speaking here last Friday, at a day�s training workshop organized by the Global Media Foundation, a Sunyani, based NGO, for opinion leaders on abortion. The programme was to adequately equip the participants to make inputs and educate women in their various communities on the need to go through proper means of abortion so as to reduce needless deaths. �Whether we legalize abortion or not, the practice will go on among young girls and women, it is therefore necessary to legalize it,� she said. She asked parents not to leave their daughters to their fate as that could force some of them to adopt crude means to abort, which could lead to their death. Mr. Victor Ofosu Boamah, Operations Manager of Global Media Foundation, noted that men�s participation in family planning issues in the country was not the best, and appealed to men to support their spouses to promote their health. Mr. Ofosu Boamah also appealed to the legislature to de-criminalize abortion form the country�s statute books, saying �this will promote the health of women in the country.� The participants were also educated on how to use contraceptives and various family planning methods.