The Upper East Regional Director of the Commission on Humans Right and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Abdulai Jalaldeen wants Ghana to consider amending its anti-abortion law.
Except pregnancies resulting from rape or defilement or that which poses serious health concerns, abortion is prohibited in Ghana.
Speaking in an interview on State of Our Nation on Dreamz FM, Mr. Jalaldeen noted that many women, for fear of being made to face the wrath of the law, are resorting to unsafe means of terminating pregnancies they do not to want keep and thus, endangering their lives.
“We have people who are causing abortion irrespective of the number of months the pregnancy has reached. And it’s as a result of the fact that if they come out, people will arrest them, they will be reported.”
He believes amending the law will allow for those considering abortion to seek professional advice and access safe method of pregnancy termination when necessary.
“I agree with you that if we amend that law to make it legal, people will have to go to hospitals. But at the end of the day, the hospital authorities will determine whether or not the pregnancy can be terminated. We just don’t walk in there the pregnancy is terminated. But once it’s still a crime, people will have to hide and do it,” he noted.
He charged non-governmental organizations and Civil Society Organizations to take the matter up and push for the law to be repealed.
While acknowledging the conservative nature of the Ghanaian society, the Regional Director of CHRAJ said the populace will buy into it if the advocacy is led by NGOs and CSOs.
“I think that the civil society should take this up. But if we allow the government institution to take it up, they will talk and nobody will listen.”
