Gender Specialist Calls for Prosecution of Men That Impregnated 2,865 Underage Girls

Lilian Bruce, a gender specialist with Plan International Ghana, has called on the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), a subsidiary of the Ghana Police Service to arrest and prosecute men who through their immoral sexual acts impregnates minor girls in Ghana.

She was speaking to the media at a workshop held in Koforidua, the Eastern Regional capital for stakeholders and implementers of “Be Smart -Learn and Stay Protected”, a project by Plan International Ghana, to tackle teenage pregnancy in Eastern and Oti regions.

Statistics by the Ghana Health Service indicate that a total of 109,888 adolescent girls were impregnated in the year, 2020. Out of the number, 2,865 were between 10 and 14 years, while those with ages between 15 and 19 years were 107,023.

Lilian Bruce opined, "that, men who impregnated these 2,865, underage girls of 10 and 14, (minor girls) in 2020, have committed a criminal offense and must be arrested and arraign before the court for Prosecution".

“What is shocking is the ages between 10 and 14 which we had over 2000 of them became pregnant in the year, 2020.

Adding that these girls that went through pregnancy are over one hundred thousand teenagers, going to bear children”.

Lastly, Lilian Bruce lamented, "most of them are in a school-going age, so it has a lot of negative impact on our social development, our economic development, and emphasized that our culture too have been tempered with, particularly those who slept with the girls of 10 to 14 years, should have been tried by now, because it is criminal, to sleep with an underage child in Ghana, but these wicked men are living freely in Ghana without been arrested by (DOVVSU)", she stressed.

William Ofori Akwaboa, Eastern Region