Around 56 million abortions occur each year in the world, with a little under half done unsafely.

Abortion rates changed little between 2003 and 2008 before which they decreased for at least two decades as access to family planning and birth control increased.

As of 2008, 40% of the world's women had access to legal abortions without limits as to reason.

In Ghana more than 16,000 young girls and women are admitted to hospitals every year with abortion complications with some of them actually dying.

Like many countries across the continent, the procedure is illegal unless the mother's health or life is at risk so many teenagers resort to backstreet abortions despite improved access to contraceptives.

Watch this report by GHOne's Ridwan Karim Dini Osman



Video credit: GHOne Television