Women’s Prior Knowledge of The Abortion Law and Decision-Making on Choice of Place for Abortion Services in Accra, Ghana

Gbagbo, Fred Yao

doi:10.30654/mjgo.10017

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 16 publications

(17 reference statements)

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“…Indeed, most people including some providers are not aware of the details of the legal status of induced abortion in Ghana and often exhibit attitudes that negatively affect access to safe abortion care in the country. 46,47 Similar observations have been made in India and Zambia where abortion is legal yet unsafe abortions still prevail due to misinformation about the law. 48 By policy, Ghana has gone far by ensuring that in giving consent for an induced abortion in Ghana the decision is predominantly a prerogative of the pregnant woman.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 57%

Self-managed Abortion as a Medico-legal Intervention in Ghana: a Systematic Review

Gbagbo

Morhe

2021

Preprint

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BackgroundWe examined the potential of improving self-managed abortion as a medico-legal intervention of safely and effectively resolving unwanted pregnancies in Ghana.MethodsWe undertook a systematic literature review on self-managed or self-induced abortion within the context of Ghanaian laws. We searched for studies from Advanced PubMed Central and Google Scholar and repositories of Public Universities in Ghana. With search words of self-managed or self-induced abortion and Ghanaian law, we found 13,100 papers. The search was then narrowed to studies conducted between 2015-2020 of which 22 most related papers were selected with Six (6) from the Advanced Google Scholar search, 18 from PubMed and 1 unpublished postgraduate thesis from a public university library.ResultsDespite a liberal law that supported positive and quite well-decentralized service delivery policy, standards, and protocols development on abortion in Ghana, self-induced abortion remains criminalized. Nonetheless, the longstanding practice persists with no evidence of prosecution of the person(s) found violating the law within the period under review. The use of abortifacients procured from pharmacies and chemists that are not recognized abortion care providers has become the leading method of self-induced. Conclusion Despite criminalizing self-induced abortion, Ghana’s law on abortion is fairly liberal enough to permit the development of comprehensive abortion care policy, standards, and protocols that have a good potential of supporting improved self-managed abortion to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality in the country. Further studies are required for the exploration of ways of filling implementation gaps to harness the potentials of improving self-managed abortions in Ghana.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 57%

Self-managed Abortion as a Medico-legal Intervention in Ghana: a Systematic Review

Gbagbo

Morhe

2021

Preprint

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“…21-25 Other studies also examine the association between women’s knowledge of abortion law and the practice of induced abortion. 26-29 Further, while some studies use hospital-based data in examining this phenomenon 27 30-32 and community-based surveys 26 28 33 34 , others use nationally representative surveys. 20 25 35 36 These previous studies did not fully explore and examine how demographic, socio-economic factors influence women’s knowledge on the legality of abortion under some conditions (rape, incest, risk to mothers and foetus health) and how that interaction determines their choice of abortion methods.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determinants of Choice of Abortion Methods among Women in Ghana; Does Knowledge on legality of Abortion Matter?

Klu

Atiglo

Manyeh

et al. 2020

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Abstract Objective This study therefore examines the role knowledge on legal abortion and other factors play in the choice of abortion methods among women within a ten-year period. Design The study use data from the 2007 and 2017 Ghana Maternal Health Surveys. A total sample of 2,432 women aged 15-49 whose activities related to their most recent induced abortion were selected. This study, however, limits the analysis to a subpopulation of women who have terminated a pregnancy between 2002 to 2007 and 2012 to 2017. The made use of binary logistic regression analysis to show the relationship between choice of abortion methods and knowledge of legality of abortion. Setting Ghana Participants Women who had practice induce abortion Main outcome measure Choice of Abortion methods Results Likelihood of unsafe abortion practices was high among women who had knowledge on legality of abortion, women with no formal education, single women, rural women and women whose partners did not know about the pregnancy. Conclusion Increasing knowledge of legal status on abortion among women corresponded with an increased in the use of unsafe abortion methods over the decade has implication for poor reproductive health outcome and increased maternal mortality among women in Ghana.

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“…In contrast, previous studies in Ghana reported poor abortion law knowledge. This was reported in a study by Gbagbo, where only 33% of women knew abortion was legal in Ghana [28]. Similarly, a study by Reiger et al among young women and men in Accra, Ghana, revealed that poor knowledge among respondents was high [6].…”

Section: Plos Global Public Healthmentioning

confidence: 71%

Knowledge and attitude towards Ghana’s abortion law: A cross-sectional study among female undergraduate students

Abubakari

Gmayinaam

Osei

2023

PLOS Glob Public Health

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Ghana amended its abortion law to permit abortion under certain circumstances due to the impacts of unsafe abortion. Even though the abortion law in Ghana is liberal, most women do not utilize the services. Studies have shown that lack of knowledge and attitude towards abortion laws are the barriers deterring women from using safe abortion services. This study, therefore, assessed the knowledge and attitudes of future female health professionals towards Ghana’s abortion law. This was an institutional-based cross-sectional study among 240 female students undertaking undergraduate courses at the Fred Newton Binka School of Public Health (FNBSPH), the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS), Ghana. Knowledge was measured with 9 items using yes or no responses while Attitude was measured using a five-point Likert scale with 14 items. Factors associated with poor knowledge among the students were determined using logistic regression. All analyses were done using STATA version 16.0. Of the 240 participants, 24 (10%) reported ever being pregnant. Among these pregnancies, 20 (83.3%) ended in abortions, with 15 (75%) of them unsafely done. The majority (53.3%) of the students knew the conditions under which abortion is allowed in Ghana and most (61.7%) of them had positive attitudes towards the abortion legislation in the country. The year of study (aOR: 0.06; 95%CI: 0.01–0.23), residential status (aOR: 0.44; 95%CI: 0.20–0.74) and poor attitude towards the abortion law (Aor:0.46; 95% CI: 0.26–0.82) were associated with poor abortion law knowledge among the students. This study has demonstrated that knowledge and attitude towards Ghana’s abortion legislation among the students was fairly good. Students’ year of study, residential status and attitude towards the abortion law were also found associated with poor knowledge of Ghana’s abortion law. Increasing young women’s knowledge of the abortion law may lead to more favourable attitudes towards abortion, improving the utilization of safe and legal abortion services.

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Women’s Prior Knowledge of The Abortion Law and Decision-Making on Choice of Place for Abortion Services in Accra, Ghana

Cited by 5 publications

References 16 publications

Self-managed Abortion as a Medico-legal Intervention in Ghana: a Systematic Review

Self-managed Abortion as a Medico-legal Intervention in Ghana: a Systematic Review

Determinants of Choice of Abortion Methods among Women in Ghana; Does Knowledge on legality of Abortion Matter?

Knowledge and attitude towards Ghana’s abortion law: A cross-sectional study among female undergraduate students

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