Mary Teye, Clinical Quality Advisor at Marie Stopes Ghana, a health organization internationally renowned for carrying out safe abortions and contraception, has shared conditions under which an abortion can be termed as legal here in Ghana.
In the course of an interview on eTV Ghana’s ‘Girl Vibes’ with Mercy Bee, she listed these conditions in reply to whether or not abortion is a legal act in Ghana.
According to her, if the pregnancy is as a result of sexual offences like rape, incest, etc, then abortion is legal.
Also, “If there’s a risk to the life of the woman who is pregnant or if it poses a risk to her physical and mental health, there are legal grounds for her to terminate that pregnancy”.
Mary Teye furthered that if there is substantive evidence that the baby in the womb will grow up to develop some abnormalities or diseases, then the laws of Ghana allow that the child can be aborted.
She noted however that, “Even if these three conditions are met, for it to still be legal, the ‘who’ and ‘where’ is also taken into consideration”.
To the best of Mary’s knowledge, the law demands that abortions should be done at a registered health facility, be it a government-owned or private one. Also, the one who will be performing the abortion must be a registered, well-trained and qualified health personnel.
By: Maureen Dedei Quaye
