Group calls govt intervention in the increasing cases of teenage  pregnancy

The Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) Network– Upper East Region has expressed grave concern over the increasing cases of teenage pregnancy in the Upper East Region.

In this vein, the group has urged the government through the Ghana Education Service, Ghana Health Service and National Youth Authority and traditional leaders to take urgent steps to make sure that adolescent girls receive the information and support they need to protect themselves from unintended pregnancy which most of the times lead to forced marriages.

This is particularly critical when safety nets for girls like schools and families have been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

According to the group, the District Health Information Management System (DHIMS) of Ghana Health Service (GHS) reported that 6,533 adolescent girls aged 10 to 19 in the Upper East Region became pregnant or mothers in 2020, an increase of 5 per cent over the figure of 6,233 girls in 2019.

 It is even worrying that the reported teenage pregnancy cases among girls aged 10 to 14 in the region have increased from 103 in 2019 to 142 in 2020, representing a 38 per cent increase.  

It asserted that the Ghana Education Service (GES) has corroborated the GHS figures on the increasing incidence of teenage pregnancies and mothers in the Region among in-school girls due to the COVID-19 school lockdown and restrictions. 

According to the group, the GES data released in September 2020 reported that 220 teenage pregnancies occurred among Girls in Junior High Schools, out of which 30 were nursing mothers. 

While 105 Junior High School girls were married during the period, 48 Senior High School girls became pregnant or nursing mothers.  

The SRHR Network–Upper East Region is of the view that gender inequality, difficulties in accessing Adolescent Reproductive Health information and Youth Friendly Health services, poverty and effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have fueled high rates of unintended teenage pregnancies and child marriages in the Region. 

It noted that the majority of the reported teenage pregnancy incidences are occurring in the poorer and rural districts of the region, particularly in the Bawku-West, Bongo and Talensi Districts, which recorded the highest in 2020.

There are similar trends in other regions of Northern Ghana. 

Available evidence worldwide suggests that the risks of maternal deaths are higher for young adolescents, with girls aged 15 years or younger facing higher risks than older adolescents.

 In addition, the potential health, social and economic disadvantages that young mothers face are widely recognized. 

Hence, the need for all hands on deck to tackle the underlying causes of high teenage pregnancies and motherhood, including stigma, poverty, social norms around expected behaviours and peer pressure to engage in sexual relations at an early age resulting in unintended pregnancies. 

It is this worrying trend that the SRHR Network–Upper East Region calls on all stakeholders to as a matter of urgency to initiate open and frank discussions on adopting and implementing a culturally sensitive and age-appropriate Reproductive Health Education (RHE) in schools and communities in the Upper East Region and Ghana as a whole.  

Freeman Koryekpor Awlesu