Women in their reproductive ages especially, adolescent girls, have been advised to discard public misconceptions about family planning and seek professional help for accurate information.

Ms Felicia Tetteh, a Community Health Nurse at the Axim Government Hospital in the Nzema East Municipality who gave the advice, said most narratives on the effects of family planning on women, were not only misconceptions but also deceptive.

She was responding to concerns raised by some parents at a sporting event organized by the Rights and Responsibilities Initiatives Ghana (RRIG) in partnership with the Alliance for Reproductive Health Rights (ARHR).

The event held for adolescent girls with disabilities in Axim, was part of a Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) in the Municipality.

The parents were apprehensive about misconceptions that some of the family planning methods could lead to infertility and this made them skeptical and hesitant in recommending the methods to their adolescent girls.

The community health nurse debunked this as mere misconception and urged the girls to visit health facilities for accurate information on family planning.

The event funded by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), brought together 27 adolescent girls aged between 10 and 19 years with various forms of disabilities including autism, deaf and dumb and mentally-challenged. They played football, handball, draught and other traditional games to make them feel part of society while learning sexual and reproductive health rights.

Ms Tetteh said adolescent girls with special needs were often abused sexually and they kept it to themselves and urged their parents to keep a close eye on them.

She said every adolescent girl including those with disability had the right to access sexual and reproductive health education and entreated parents of disabled girls not to deny them their rights to such services.

Ms Faustina Osei Prempeh, Pragrammes Manager of RRIG, said the programme was to educate out-of-school adolescent girls with a disability on sexual and reproductive health, as a human right.

She said it also sought to build their assertive skills to access contraceptive services at adolescent-friendly health facilities to avert unwanted pregnancies.