INCREASING TEENAGE PREGNANCIES IN EASTERN REGION BLAMED ON POVERTY

The Eastern Region has recorded 8,174 young pregnancies as of September 2021, up from 7,976 recorded inside the same period in 2020, the Ghana Wellbeing Benefit has said. Of the cases, 12.6 percent speak to young ladies matured 10 to 14 a long time, whereas 12.2 percent speak to young ladies between the ages 15 to 19. The records appear an increment of 12.4 percent over the 2020 cases of adolescent pregnancies, Dr Winfred Ofosu, the Eastern Regional Chief of GHS, said in an meet with the Ghana News Office. He said the increment may well be related more with destitution and need of parental control or maybe than the Covid-19 pandemic. “A parcel of guardians from destitute homes may not be able to control their young ladies exceptionally much since in the event that the child needs something and you cannot give, the child gets it somewhere else,” he said. Concurring to him, the failure of young people to arrange their way out of sexual demands or progresses from men or boys remain a grave challenge. “In case you're a young lady and you're cornered, perhaps a boy needs to have sex with you, you ought to be able to conversation your way out,” Dr Ofosu said. He said the increment in young pregnancy in 2021 was startling since exercises were back to ordinary taking after the Covid-19 episode as schools had been opened, not at all like in 2020 when everything was at a stop. Dr Ofosu called for a moment see at the least age of the sexual assent law beneath the Criminal Offenses Act, 1960 (Act 29), which allow young people at age 16 to assent to sex, including; “the way the law is structured truly cannot offer assistance.” Inquire about uncovers that high school pregnancies carry extra wellbeing dangers to both mother and child, such as the higher chance for pregnancy-related tall blood weight, anaemia, preteen work, and urinary tract infections. A GHS study uncovered that 555,575 young people, matured 10 to 19, got pregnant between 2016 and 2020, but there was a 1.2 per cent diminish in adolescent pregnancy cases in Eastern Locale from 2017 to 2021. The cases as of January to September in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 were 8,632 (13.4 percent), 8,012 (12.7 percent), 8,196 (13 percent), 7,976 (12.4 percent) and 8,174 (12.6 percent), individually. Dr Ofosu said endeavors being made to decrease the issue included instruction, parental control and preparing young ladies with information on arrangement aptitudes. “The most prominent weapon to decrease adolescent pregnancy is to keep young ladies in school additionally increment parental control,” he expressed.