<<Print>>

Criminal abortion is on the increase among teenagers at Budumburam in the Central Region. According to a rotational midwife at the St Gregory Catholic Hospital who wanted to remain anonymous, children between the ages of 10 and 18 took all manner of concoctions to terminate pregnancies. The midwife said there were instances where these young girls took large doses of paracetamol just to terminate a pregnancy, and they are rushed to the hospital for treatment. However, they end up going back to such lifestyles again. She said the situation was so alarming that some of the girls ended up contracting various sexually transmitted diseases. �Recently, we had a case of a 10-year-old girl who had contracted the HIV/AIDS virus,� she disclosed. The midwife mentioned that the health facility was embarking on a massive education on sex and also put the very active teenagers on family planning to prevent further unwanted pregnancies and needless deaths.