The National Population Council has lamented a new norm in the Northern region, where men lure young girls into sex in exchange for sanitary pads.
The PRO for the Council, Solace Esi Amankwah, said this has led to the rise in teenage pregnancies in some communities in the region.
“In the North, for instance, people use sanitary pads to lure girls into sex. And it is causing a lot of problems,” she said on TV3’s New Day morning show.
Data from the Ghana Health Service shows that more than a hundred thousand teenagers got pregnant in 2020.
In January, the Ghana Education Service (GES) also revealed that the Ashanti Region leads in teenage pregnancies in the country.
Mrs. Amankwah believes the government must prioritise adolescent reproductive health in order to mitigate teenage pregnancy.
She, therefore, called on all Members of Parliament (MPs) to equip health professionals in the constituencies to educate and train the youth on matters of reproductive health.
“If our government officials will come on board and the MP will come and promise dams and hospitals and all the tangible things. And the MP will say that this community have the highest rate of teenage pregnancy, in my manifesto, I will build a health centre purposely for information and knowledge seeking and have training on reproductive health by the 4-year time it would have reduced,” she said.
“If the girl child has sought information, and the right information is available, and she has had that, the girl will not become pregnant. The absence of the right information is the problem for most girls.”
The National Population Council PRO also urged the various health centers to be friendly to victims of teenage pregnancy and avoid stereotypic attitudes against them.
