Tema-Ghana, Dec. 6, – Ms. Doris Ocansey, the Adolescent Reproductive Health Focal Person for the Tema Metropolitan Health Directorate (TMHD), has revealed that abortions among adolescents in the metropolis recorded a decrease in the year 2022.
She noted that 48 abortion cases were seen at the various health facilities in the metropolis among adolescents, indicating that the definition of adolescents is persons aged between 10 and 19 years.
Ms Ocansey spoke at the weekly “Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility,” which is a project of the Ghana News Agency’s Tema Regional Office to enhance health literacy, promote discussion of health-related topics, and offer a forum for the sharing of health information.
It was intended to explore the limits of the four health communication modalities—informative, instructional, persuasive, and prompting—in addition to serving as a platform for public health advocacy.
She said this showed a sharp decrease from the 73 seen in 2021, 68 in 2020, 86 in 2019, and 73 in 2018.
She explained that abortions clinically included both induced and miscouraged abortions, adding that the figure might not give the true picture because these were cases seen at the hospitals and there might be some that were carried out successfully without complications to report to the health centres.
She said the decrease could be attributed to changes in behaviour and the increase in family planning rates, an indication that the adolescents might be engaging in sexual activities but not getting pregnant, which could lead to abortions.
Ms. Ocansey said 896 adolescent girls were put on various types of family planning in 2022.
Touching on adolescent pregnancies, the focal person revealed that there was a drop from 471 to 365 pregnancies among adolescents for 2021 and 2022, respectively.
Adolescent pregnancies for 2020, 2019, and 2018 for the Tema Metro, respectively, were 463, 478, and 456.
She said to ensure good reproductive health and sexual practices among the adolescents in the metropolis, her outfit has been organising various programmes aimed at reaching the 31,546 adolescent population in the area.
She said they do this by collaborating with the Ghana Education Service (GES) to reach out to the in-school adolescents, while the adolescent-friendly nurses in the various health institutions and community corners also engage the out-of-school adolescents.
