Cape Coast, – To minimize risks and secure a healthy future for adolescents, youngsters must endeavour to make good reproductive and sexual health choices, Mr.
Michael Tagoe, Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) advocate of the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG) has advised.
He noted that a good number of adolescents did not have access to reproductive health choices and that accounted for some of them acquiring HIV.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, the SRHR Advocate, said the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS), pegged 14 percent of females aged between 15 to 19 years at bearing children and about three Percent were pregnant at the time of the survey.
He attributed this to low availability of Family Planning choices among respondents with majority of them relying on their peers for information on sexual and reproductive health.
Reproductive health services had received low patronage because of their perceived misconceptions and confidentiality, Mr Tagoe, noted.
“Having a sexual partner and engaging in premarital sex is now very common and viewed as normal among our youth today, unfortunately, they engage in unprotected sexual practices as a way of testing their fertility, assurance of love, bait for marriage and for livelihood,” he said.
Speaking on abortions, he said PPAG existed to guide adolescents through safe abortions and in making good life and sexual choices with contraceptives and STI management.
“It is sad they do not patronize us when they find themselves wanting, they result to peer influences and risk their lives and future, we have good contraceptive choices for all that would help prevent both SGIs and unplanned pregnancies though we encourage total abstinence if possible”.
He further urged policy makers, the media and all well-meaning organizations to help advocate for adolescent SRHR to help adolescents make informed choices and decisions that would positively affect their lives.
Source: Ghana News Agency
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