Koforidua, Feb. 18, GNA - Mrs Susana Akrofi-Mantey, a Public Health Nurse at the Koforidua Regional Hospital, says although abortion is not encouraged in any form, it is better for medical authorities to accept to safely abort unwanted pregnancies for young girls than to allow them to die from criminal abortion. She was speaking at a training workshop for students from some senior high schools in the New Juaben Municipality organized by the Golden Mothers Vision International, a Community Based Organization (CBO), associated with HIV and AIDS prevention and girl child education.

Mrs Akrofi-Mantey expressed worry about abortion by young girls in the municipality and called for efforts to address the situation. She said most of the girls who got pregnant and attempted to illegally abort the pregnancy died in the process. She cautioned the students to be careful since women who undergo one or more induced abortions carry a significantly increased risk of delivering prematurely in the future.

Mrs Akrofi said premature delivery was associated with higher rates of cerebral palsy as well as other complications such as brain disorder, respiratory, bowel, and eye problems. She said illegal abortion could also result in excessive bleeding, infection, organ damage from a perforated uterus and adverse reactions to anaesthesia that might lead to death.