The queen mother of Kissi in the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem Municipality of the Central Region has threatened to have paraded in the streets of the town, all pregnant junior high school (JHS) girls. That is her weird and crude prescription for stopping the social anomaly.
To join in the street parade are those responsible for the pregnancies, she added. This queen mother does not know the limits of her powers as a traditional authority and would create a more serious problem than the teenage pregnancies, in the first place.
Some girls could contemplate committing suicide when they are unable to stand the effects of the humiliation they would suffer through the street parade.
If the report is a true reflection of what Nana Efua Badu II said, then we shall ask that somebody advise her to understand the implications of what she seeks to do.
The queen mother should know that the law will deal with her if she makes good this promise because of the devastating psychological impact this could have on the girls.
With good management and societal support, pregnant JHS girls can deliver and continue with their education. That is the area the queen mother should concentrate on and not humiliating pregnant girls and killing their self-esteem.
Teenage pregnancies are definitely a source of worry in every community where it is happening, but such a crude approach as she has proposed is not a remedy to what is almost a national challenge.
Parents, school authorities, opinion leaders, pastors and imams, chiefs and queen mothers included, should all join hands in the efforts to reduce teenage pregnancies.
Every year the media report about pregnant girls writing the BECE but little or nothing is done to stop or reduce the anomaly to the barest minimum. In fact, such reports are posted with some relish rather than seeking a remedy to the aberration.
Men who impregnate these girls are unable to fend for them, leaving them to their fate in most cases. It is lamentable that such men always go scot-free as the girls suffer the consequences of the unwanted pregnancies.
Parents should understand that shirking their responsibilities towards their daughters will push these girls to seek help from men who would in many cases seek reciprocal gestures, leading to pregnancies as natural consequences.
Societal failure is another factor for the rise in teenage pregnancies. Bringing up the girl-child requires extra skills, lacking which can lead to various challenges such as teenage pregnancies.
Single parenthood in some homes is one of the factors leading to teenage pregnancies. We call on the relevant civil society organisations to wade into such a social challenge and not leave it in the hands of ignorant queen mothers.
If she is not stopped now, she would proceed to prescribe flogging of these girls or something worse than that.
It is our position that when pregnancy occurs, the victim should be counselled and assisted rather than subjected to further stress and even crude and life-threatening abortions.
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