Costs of unsafe abortions in the Ablekuma South District of the Accra Metropolis

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Date
June, 2014
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Abstract
Women have resorted to abortions since times immemorial despite social norms and legal restriction that barred it. Today, restrictive abortion laws and inaccessibility to safe and affordable abortion services lead many girls and women of reproductive age to resort to unsafe abortion that result in costs: costs that are financial, social and health related. Costs which transcend the person of the woman; to her household and her community. The study assessed costs of unsafe abortions amongst forty-five (45) women who had gone through an unsafe abortion. It is came to light that the incidence of unsafe abortions is not limited to a homogenous group of woman, but cuts across women of different socio-demographic backgrounds of religious orientation and education for instance. The predominant age category was 19-28years, an indication that women in that age category are more predisposed to committing abortions than women in the other age categories. This is in line with findings in the GMHS‘s (2007) report which indicated that women aged 20–29years are more likely to seek an abortion than those aged 30years and above. Many were unmarried and did not intend to get pregnant at the time pregnancy occurred, but, also did not use any form of modern contraceptive to prevent the risk of pregnancy. Most of the unsafe abortions were self-induced by taking a drug obtained from a pharmacy over the counter, or by drinking an herbal concoction which was self administered. The financial losses of the unsafe abortions affected both the individual women and their significant others. There were social costs or losses to children, as well as significant others in the household of study participants. The issue of unsafe abortions should and must be critically accesses and addressed if Ghana is to make head way its quest to meet the MDGs, and also because the losses or costs go beyond the women who commits the act, the Ghanaian society perhaps ought to lend more support, try to empathize with, as well as encourage young women and girls who find themselves saddled with unintended pregnancies instead of stigmatizing them, so that they will not resort to abortions, and unsafe abortions for that matter.
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A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies and Research, Department of Sociology and Social Work, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts.
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