A gender specialist with Plan International Ghana, Lilian Bruce says the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service must arrest and prosecute men who impregnated 2,865 minor girls in 2020.
Statistics by the Ghana Health Service indicate that a total of 109,888 adolescent girls were impregnated in 2020. Out of the number 2,865 were between 10 and 14 years while those with ages between 15 and 19 years were 107,023.
Speaking to the media at the sidelines of a workshop held in Koforidua for stakeholders and implementers of “Be Smart -Learn and Stay Protected”, a project by Plan International Ghana to tackle teenage pregnancy in Eastern and Oti regions Lilian Bruce stated that, men who impregnated these minor girls have committed a criminal offense and must be arrested and put before court for Prosecution.
“What is shocking is the ages between 10 and 14 which we had over 2000 of them that have become pregnant. Most of these girls that have gone through pregnancy over a hundred thousand are teenagers who are going to bear children”. Most of them are at school-going age so it has a lot of impact on our social development, on our economic development and even our culture has been tempered with particularly those who slept with the 10 to 14, we should try them by now because it is a criminal issue to sleep with an underage child in Ghana but we haven’t heard in the courts whether these cases are being tried”.
Source: Mybrytfmonline.com/Obed Ansah
