Teenage pregnancy goes up in Ejisu Juaben

Teenage pregnancy and illegal abortions are on the ascendancy at Abenase in the Ejisu-Juaben Municipality of Ashanti Region.

Mrs Mary Amponsah-Koduah, Municipal Public Health Nurse, said more than 60 percent of teenage girls in the community had undergone abortion.

Addressing a sensitisation durbar in the town, she said sexual adventurism was to blame for the phenomenon and appealed to the traditional authorities, parents, churches and other stakeholders to help tackle the situation.

Mrs Amponsah-Koduah said it was worrying to see young girls in junior senior high schools sexually active, adding that some of them were patronising family planning services to avoid getting pregnant.

“This is certainly awful,” she said.

The Municipal Public Health Nurse advised the youth to desist from premarital sex and concentrate on their education.

She said they should also desist from resorting to herbal concoctions to terminate unwanted pregnancies, warning that, this could prove fatal.

Madam Mercy Agyemang, a Senior Staff Midwife at the Ejisu Government Hospital, urged parents to monitor and supervise their children to prevent them from going wayward.

She asked married couples to practise family planning.

Nana Akua Konadu, Asotwe Mmabaawahemmaa (Queen mother), said the traditional council would continue to partner the health directorate to promote education on reproductive health.