Increased teenage pregnancies has socio-economic consequences for Central Region- NPC

Cape Coast, July 29, GNA - The National Population Council (NPC) has warned of dire socio-economic consequences for the Central Region if pragmatic measures are not taken to holistically tackle the increasing teenage pregnancies.

The Council said it was unacceptable that more than twenty-one percent of teenage girls between the ages of 15 and 19 years in the Region were either pregnant or at least have had a child.

Women in the Region are also said to give birth to about five children by the time they complete their childbearing, a figure above the national average of four children.

Mr Augustine Jongtey, the Regional Officer of NPC, disclosed this at a public durbar to mark the World Population Day in Cape Coast, further indicated that one in three married women in the Region wanted to limit their childbearing or spacing but were not using any form of family planning.

The celebration was on the theme: "Family planning is a human right, an imperative to sustainable national development".

The annual celebration, instituted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1987, is seen as a powerful advocacy tool for accelerating education of the masses on global population trends particularly within the context of the Sustainable Development Agenda.

Mr Jongtey said family planning was a human right issue with strong linkage to sustainable development at all levels, adding that "family planning is central to gender equality and women empowerment and a key factor in reducing poverty".

He noted that millions of women globally did not have access to family planning services, a situation he said inhibited efforts towards reducing poverty and facilitating economic emancipation of vulnerable individuals specifically in developing nations.

Planned families, according to him, ensured good health and that, children that were properly spaced stood a greater chance of receiving qualitative improvement in their lives.

In that light, the NPC further called for a sustained multi-sectoral collaboration in ensuring that all females and males in Ghana of child-bearing age were educated and provided with tools of birth control.

Mrs. Agnes Morgue-Duncan, a Nurse from the Ghana Health Service (GHS), stressed that family planning methods were not only there for women but men could also patronise it.

She spoke of the various methods of contraceptive and said options were available to ensure planned rather than accidental, unplanned birth and unavoidable lost of lives.

She therefore called for increase awareness to increase family planning acceptance whiles efforts were made to scale up the provision of ante-natal and post-natal family planning.

Mrs Morgue-Duncan, identified cultural and religious beliefs, lack of information, limited access to contraceptives and lack of cooperation from partners as some of the major challenges and assured that Ghana was making giant strides in contraceptive use despite the challenges.

Mr Michael Tagoe, Project Officer for Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG) in the Central Region, called for rigorous sex education for teens to appreciate the need to guard against unwanted pregnancies

He warned that teenagers who got pregnant risked additional medical concerns since their pelvis might not be well developed for child birth.

He said access to anti-natal care for teenagers was a problem, likewise the risk of low birth rate coupled with social stigma, leading to criminal abortions.

GNA

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