Implantable Contraceptives could haunt teenage users someday - Girl Child Coordinator warns

The Coordinator for Girl Child Education in the Atwima Nwabiagya North District, Mrs Charity Donkor has doomed parents hugging of implantable contraceptives for their wards to control teenage pregnancy in the Assembly, Ghana and beyond saying it could haunt users someday.

The Implantable contraception (often called the birth control implant) according to TeensHealth is a small, flexible plastic tube that doctors put under the skin of a girl's upper arm. The tube releases hormones that can help protect against pregnancy for up to 3 years.

The method has been heavily accepted by guardians as the new normal to prevent frustrating their young girls future across Basic and Junior High schools in Ghana through sexual activities.

The Coordinator confirmed that most of the young females in the Atwima Nwabiagya North are wearing the implants, a decision which encourages them to be involved in sexual promiscuity rather than seeking abstinence. She called on parents, teachers and the various Ghanaian societies to implement guidelines to check wards instead of disregarding them to leave self-governing lifestyles.

“Most of the children are using contraceptives because parents do not want them to fall as victims of teenage pregnancy.

 “The implant contraceptive method is what has been embraced today and it’s not helping the children at all. How long will they continue to wear them (contraceptives)?

“The best way is abstinence and I believe that if parents, teachers and society put correctional measures to control the youth, teenage pregnancy won’t be a worry at all.

“As per science research, the IQ of young girls who engages in sex at tender age drops by 45 per cent. So their dullness in class is contributed by their early sex life. It is a harm to their system and brains,” she said.

Mrs Charity Donkor stressed that the rate of poverty in the Atwima Nwabiagya North is a heavy influence on teenage pregnancy in the Assembly by means of parents unfair treatment towards their young girls for their own benefit. She explained that some of the guardians instead of starting a trade with limited capital to cater for their wards and improve their lifestyles, prefer to take pennies from fraudulent men whom with deceitful tongues accept the young girls as helpers.

She addressed that when the teenagers are lavished with nice clothing from their ill-considered boyfriends, the situation appears presentable to their fellows and are also introduced in the trend. The children after pregnancy are then abandoned and become a burden to family and society.

“Parents have taken advantage of their daughters to fend for their families as a result of hardship. Instead of them selling something to cater for themselves and household, they make use of the opportunities offered by men and hand over their children to them as a means to take care of themselves and their families.

“The young girls sometimes make a comparison of what they wear and that of their friends and are inducted into the abusive line. They always want to improve their way of life hence associating themselves with friends who are already dating guys and their introduction at the end leads to teenage pregnancy due to their green background about sexual protection.

“Parents who have put an end to their responsibility is also a cause. They sometimes do not check the schedules of their wards and are always in a hurry to get to the market and other working places.

“Due to this, so many girls have become victims because they also want to improve their living and that is how they end up in the rooms of young guys. It’s good to seek for money but failure to check your children is a disaster which later comes to haunt parents when they are old.

Social media was not left out by the coordinator who ticked the modern menace as an emotional influence on the girls. She asserted that young females “watch pictures online and prefer to inherit such luxurious lifestyles.”

She questioned why so many parents have ignored controlling their children on social media, leaving them to be tainted by fake lives of people which always leads to clinging unto men for money to acquire dresses to look good in them.

She cited that the abuse of girls is intimidating the educational ladder after the outcome of research done last two and three years. According to her, enrolment of girls at primary level normally stands at 80 per cent, the Junior High School at 60 and the Senior High School also at 45 per cent. From the Senior High School to tertiary level is usually at 25 to 20 per cent, an indication that as education advance there is a decline in the number of girls due to teenage pregnancy.

“The female numbers are more and we should be dominating a lot of areas but this is as a result of teenage pregnancy.

“The young girls are not able to continue schooling. When this happens, it affects the impartation of the nation,

"Poverty is rampant in Ghana is as a result of teenage pregnancy because victims lack support to take care of their children which affect the growth of the infant. Just as the woman gave birth at a tender age, so will it. It’s more of a generational cycle and it affects the educational ladder and the ability for the girls to be enlightened.

"If teenage pregnancy does not decline, we’ll still suffer in poverty," she added.

Residents told SoireeNews that young girls do not heed advice on pregnancy until they fall as victims.

They spoke that female children start revisiting advice and learn their lessons only when they are affected therefore the situation will only decline when submission is enforced.

Another voiced that men always abandon sufferers for new ones and that alone is an experience for new girls to learn in order to avoid ruining their chances in life.