Cases Of Unsafe Abortions Occur On University Campuses Yearly

A survey conducted by the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) in 2008 indicated that in every campus across the country at least three cases of unsafe abortion occurred every year. Although since 2008, no survey had been conducted, there were still reported cases of unsafe abortions across the campuses including the Senior High schools in Ghana and that called for constant and sustainable education programs on safe abortion. Ms Bashiratu Kamal of Ipas, an International organization working in the area of safe motherhood and maternal health, disclosed this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) during an education seminar on dangers of abortion at the All Nations University College (ANU) in Koforidua on Tuesday. She said the issue of abortion was now critical to the reduction of maternal death in Ghana in that abortion related deaths contributed 11 per cent to maternal mortality in the country. Ms Kamal said many people resorted to unhealthy methods in aborting unwanted pregnancies because of the difficulty in accessing medical care and the stigma that persisted some years ago. She appealed to the media houses to use their mediums to educate the public that there were abortion care services in all health facilities in the country and so they should go to medical centres for their abortion need than using the unacceptable methods, which could led to complications and even death. Ms Cynthia Tawiah also from Ipas said Ipas was working on a project to reduce abortion deaths and complications. As part of the project, Ipas had trained doctors and midwives who are allowed to handle abortion cases in many public health facilities. She said their emphasis had been the promotion and use of manual vacuum aspiration and medication abortion for all abortion cases which had been recommended by the World Health organization (WHO). Ms Tawiah said so far the training of doctors and midwives to handle abortion cases in public health facilities had covered Ashanti, Eastern, Greater Accra and the three Northern Regions. She therefore called on all to patronize the public health facilities for any abortion to save lives, adding that the issue of stigma and unwelcoming reception which was the case formally had been taken care of. The Women�s Commissioner of the ANU, Ms Golda Anambane, noted that many people resorted to unhealthy methods because of financial constraints and appealed that the National Health Insurance Scheme should be made to cover abortions.