Mamprugu Queen Mothers with stakeholders at Nalerigu
The queen mothers of the Mamprugu Traditional Area have called for the enactment of by-laws to curb the rising cases of teenage pregnancies in the Mamprugu area and the entire North East region.
The queen mothers made this call through their representative, Salifu Agnes Kpala at a stakeholders engagement meeting organized by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in Nalerigu in the North East region.
The queen mothers’ call comes after data from the GHS showed that teenage pregnancy was on the rise in the North East region.
“At the traditional level, we will make sure that we organize parents at the various palaces to educate them on how to monitor their teenagers to reduce teenage pregnancies. We should also institute measures such as bylaws to punish culprits.”
The deputy health director, public health, Moses Barimah Djimatey who presented the data from the GHS indicated that the menace is on the rise and the North East region was the second worst-performing region in terms of teenage pregnancy in the country in 2020.
He noted that the region scored 13.8%, 12.3% and 14.6% in 2018, 2019 and 2020 respectively. Moses Barimah Djimatey added that some of the teenagers after realizing that they’re pregnant resort to illegal means of terminating the pregnancy since they were not ready for it.
He therefore encouraged health workers and religious bodies to softened their stance against abortion since the law has provided a space for girls to have abortion under some special cases.
“Our societal values and religious beliefs frown upon abortion. So when a girl is pregnant and doesn’t want to keep it, she finds it difficult to walk to the appropriate facility. Even married women find it difficult. Sometimes even the health worker who is contacted will begin to preach morals to the teenager which in the long run pushes the teenager to resort to other means of getting rid of the pregnancy. I urge all health workers to be professional when dealing with teenagers who want to terminate their pregnancies. This will help reduce the rate at which teenagers engage in unsafe abortion.”
The stakeholders resolved to take measures such as enacting bylaws, reporting perpetrators of teenage pregnancy and allowing the law to deal with them, encouraging the use of contraceptives, and educating the teenagers on their reproductive health and rights.
The North East regional minister, Hon. Yidana Zakaria on his part pledged his full backing to all the resolutions made to curb teenage pregnancy.
“I just want to call on parents, chiefs, civil society in general, let’s frown on teenage pregnancy and when the perpetrators are found, let the laws apply to the latter and we get them punished. Without appropriate measure of punishment, this canker will continue to fester. And it’s not going to be in anyone’s interest. We at the political level, we will give our blessing to that resolution.”
FROM Eric Kombat, Nalerigu