A REGIONAL Public Health Nurse (PHN) at the Central Regional Health Directorate has disclosed that her outfit recorded 277 cases of induced abortion in the first half of the year.
According to Margaret Forson, this figure represented 15.5%.
According to her, eight out of the total abortion cases recorded were at health facilities, while the others were recorded through confessions of culpable women. She noted that cases of abortion in the region might increase or decrease if the necessary measures were not put in place.
Madam Forson noted that most women who committed abortions were married women who had not planned for the pregnancy.
This was revealed in a general overview presentation of family planning activities at Enyinabrim in the Assin South District, when the regional health directorate officially launched the regional family planning week in the district.
The occasion, themed �Contraceptive: the Key to Accurate Information�, attracted traditional rulers, health professionals, opinion leaders, religious leaders, parents as well as school children.
Addressing the gathering, Mrs. Forson revealed that though her outfit had embarked on numerous educational programmes to sensitize the public on the need for family planning, it was not being patronized.
She noted that since 2008 to 2010, the regional family planning coverage hovered around 32% to 33%, charging the public to assist the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to achieve its target of reducing it to the barest minimum.
Mrs. Forson hinted that the main challenge faced by her outfit was the ignorance among society, explaining that some people perceived family planning methods as very dangerous.
She however noted that the methods had no ill effects on the human system.
She bemoaned the situation where husbands refused to let their wives use any of the family planning methods to space childbirth, a situation she said put the women�s health at risk.
Mrs. Forson therefore appealed to couples to visit any health facility for firsthand information on family planning, so as to make a choice suitable for them.
In an address read on her behalf, the District Chief Executive of Assin South, Madam Sabbinah Appiah Kubi, appealed to the GHS to intensify the education of masses on the use of contraceptives.
She noted that low patronage of contraceptives had resulted in the high rate of child birth and streetism, which had become a burden for government.
Madam Appiah Kubi assured the people that government would continue to partner the GHS to embark on serious educational campaigns in the region to enlighten couples and the youth on the need to plan and space the birth of their children.
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